Moments in Time with Dave VanCleve: Ah, Wilderness. The History of the Establishment of State Wilderness Areas at Anza-Borrego
David Van Cleve has many ties to Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and Anza-Borrego Foundation. In the 1980s, he was an environmental scientist in the San Diego regional office, where he collaborated with park staff on many significant natural resource projects. In 1989, he was selected to serve as the superintendent of the state park. In 1994, his responsibilities were expanded to include management of six other state parks (Mt. San Jacinto, Cuyamaca Rancho, Palomar Mountain, Salton Sea, Picacho, and Indio Hills) in addition to Anza-Borrego. After retiring from state service, he worked for The Nature Conservancy as Ecoregional Director for the South Coast Ecoregion and added over 1,000 acres to the park. Currently Dave serves as the President of Anza-Borrego Foundation. Each month, Dave will fill in some important issues in the history Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, which often dove-tail with the history of ABF. We are grateful for his wealth of knowledge of the Park and willingness to share with us!
If you were asked to describe Anza-Borrego Desert State Park in one word, it would be difficult; a lot of people would likely use a word that referred to the Park’s wild quality. Although it is largely in San Diego County – a region famous for its beaches and one of the largest cities in the country – the county gets generally less populated as you travel east from the populated coastal communities. When you reach the top of Montezuma Grade or start to descend Banner Grade, you get a sense of the wildness of the Park.
In 1974, the state legislature passed the California Wilderness Act, which established the “designated wilderness” program in the state. This was about ten years after the federal government led the way with an act that protected federal lands in several agencies.
At the same time, the legislature approved two wilderness areas in Southern California state park units – the Santa Rosa Mountains Wilderness in Anza-Borrego, and the Mount San Jacinto Wilderness in Mount San Jacinto State Park. Bud Getty, park superintendent, and Mark Jorgensen (then a seasonal employee at the Park) wrote the proposal for the Santa Rosa Mountains State Wilderness, which became part of the 1974 law.
The act also established the criteria for designating additional state wildernesses and the process for such designation. Further wilderness designation in units of the State Parks System would be subject to public hearings and approval by the California State Park and Recreation Commission. The state was slow to legally establish additional state wildernesses.
Potential wilderness must be on state-owned land, exhibit wild characteristics, have negligible human impact, and be at least 5,000 contiguous acres in size. With rare exception, the use of motorized equipment and vehicles is prohibited.
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park Superintendent Bud Getty, looking over the political landscape in the early ‘80s, recognized a window of opportunity. The secretary for resources (one level above the State Parks director in the state hierarchy) in the Edmund G. Brown Jr. administration was Huey Johnson. Johnson had a reputation as an advocate for wilderness, and Bud was aware that Johnson would leave that position at the latest in January of 1983, when a new governor would take office and appoint their own management team. Bud realized that they had better get any proposed wilderness areas before the park commission for consideration and approval while Johnson was still in office.
Mark Jorgensen (who later became the park naturalist, resource ecologist, and superintendent) was again tasked with developing the proposals for the state wilderness for the Park. He recognized right away that there would have to be several separate wilderness areas. Because the Park has a large number of dirt roads in its backcountry and motorized travel is not allowed in wilderness, a single wilderness area would not be feasible.
Mark spent many months drawing maps, preparing resource summaries for each proposed study area, and surveying the backcountry to ensure his proposals made sense. In 1981, the park commission held public hearings to take testimony about the proposed wilderness. Surprisingly, there was almost zero opposition to any of the wilderness proposals in the Park. At the time, 12 separate wildernesses were established, and slight expansions were approved the following year.
In 2005, that same commission approved the general plan for the entire Park, following more than a decade of preparation. The general plan added acreage to three of the original wildernesses, and it created one new state wilderness.
There now exists more than 460,000 acres of official wilderness in the Park. This dwarfs the amount of state wilderness owned and managed by all other state agencies, and it comprises 95% of the wilderness in California’s State Park System. This wilderness designation affords exceptional protection for the Park and its incredible resources. New roads, power lines, and new facilities – including park structures – are now prohibited, and the land will remain wild and free for visitors to enjoy in perpetuity.