OVSES Boundary

The OVSES is located in Owens Valley, on the east side of the Sierra Nevada, in western Inyo County, California. The OVSES encompasses approximately 458,852 acres of Owens Valley from the Mono/Inyo County line to the southern edge of Owens Lake. It consists of the area between the boundaries of Inyo National Forest lands on the east and west. The exceptions are in the northwest, where the boundary roughly corresponds to Pleasant Valley Dam and the Tungsten Hills, and the southeast where the boundary roughly follows the base of the Inyo Mountains, with the eastern-most point at the intersection of Highways 136 and 190. The southern edge of the OVSES corresponds to the northern limit of the Olancha Dunes immediately east of Olancha

The OVSES consists mostly of the floor of Owens Valley, but includes portions of the Volcanic Tableland, Chalfant Valley, and Fish Slough, as well as Crater Mountain, the Alabama Hills, and the lower alluvial fans of the White, Inyo, and Sierra Nevada Mountains. The elevation in most of the OVSES ranges from 3,550 feet above mean sea level (amsl) at Owens Lake to approximately 4,500 feet amsl near the Tungsten Hills; however, the elevation increases very rapidly at the margins of the OVSES in the Volcanic Tableland and the lower slopes of the surrounding mountains, and the highest points in the OVSES are 6,130 feet amsl at Crater Mountain and approximately 6,200 feet amsl west of the Alabama Hills.