Managed Lands in the OVSES and Inyo County

Inyo County is a rural county located in the desert region of eastern California. Inyo County has a total land area of approximately 6,545,280 acres (10,227 square miles) and a population density of approximately 1.8 people per square mile. Over half of the land area of the county (5,262 square miles) is contained in Death Valley National Park, and the vast majority of the remainder is administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), the US Forest Service (USFS), or the Department of Defense. Nearly all of the county’s approximately 18,400 residents live in the Owens Valley; communities in other parts of the county such as Darwin, Furnace Creek, Calvada, Valley Wells, Deep Springs, and Shoshone have populations of no more than 100 people and most number fewer than 50.

The OVSES is approximately 458,852 acres (717 square miles) in size and includes all of the county’s significant population centers. Census designated places in the OVSES contain approximately 15,000 people and Native American reservations include approximately 1,300 more. The remainder of the population in the OVSES lives in small private subdivisions and individual farms and ranches. Despite including nearly the entire population of the county, the OVSES remains largely undeveloped, with a population density of approximately 25 people per square mile. The majority of the land in the OVSES is managed either by the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) or BLM. A small portion of the OVSES is managed by the State of California or other authorities including the City of Bishop, Native American reservations, the National Park Service, and private landowners.