DEATH VALLEY, Calif. -- The National Park Service is initiating a Wilderness Stewardship Plan for the Death Valley Wilderness Area.

The purpose of this is to guide the National Park Service and to make decisions regarding the future use and protection of the wilderness lands.

The service will complete an environmental analysis consistent with the National Environmental Policy Act. It is anticipated that this process will take two to three years to complete, and there will be several times in the process when they will actively invite public input -- this is the first such occasion.

"We want to hear what you value about the Death Valley Wilderness as well as any issues or concerns you have regarding how the wilderness resource is used and managed. Your comments are important to us," said spokesman Terry Baldino.

"While we will welcome your input throughout the planning process, your early comments will be most beneficial to our planning effort if we received them by June 1. We prefer comments via the electronic public comment form on the NPS Planning, Environment and Public Comment System at http://parkplanning.nps.gov/deva, or by e-mail to DEVAplanning@nps.gov.

Comments may also be submitted in writing to: Superintendent Death Valley NP -- Wilderness Plan, P.O. Box 579, Death Valley CA 92328.

This planning process is specific to wilderness lands within Death Valley National Park as designated by the U.S. Congress. It does not include non-wilderness backcountry concerns such as: backcountry road corridors and campsites, backcountry cabins near roads, Saline Valley hot springs, private inholdings or other non-NPS lands, and developed campgrounds.

The Death Valley Wilderness was designated by Congress in the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 to preserve "a public wildland resource of extraordinary and inestimable value for this and future generations."

The Death Valley National Park Wilderness at 3,100,000 acres is the largest named area of wilderness in the continental United States and includes 93 percent of the park. These wilderness lands are parceled into numerous smaller units by an extensive network of highways and primitive dirt roads.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 identifies undeveloped federal land that retains its "primeval character and influence without permanent improvements or human habitation," is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions, and which:

1. Generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable.

2. Has outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive and unconfined type of recreation.

3. Has at least 5,000 acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition.

4. May also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic or historical value. "

For more information, contact Park Wilderness Coordinator Charlie Callagan at 760-786-3282.