The agreement imposes immediate restrictions on activities deemed threatening to fragile plants and wildlife. It bans grazing on 1.3 million acres of desert tortoise habitat, and requires seasonal grazing closures of another half-million acres. The settlement requires emergency road closures on 800,000 acres of crucial tortoise habitat in the West Mojave, and bars off-road access to a lush desert canyon near Death Valley. It will tighten voluntary closures of seven popular hiking trails in the Coachella Valley.

It also requires the Bureau of Land Management to revise its plan for the California Desert Conservation Area to better preserve 24 endangered species across a vast swath of land including Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, Imperial, Inyo, Mono and Kern counties.

The bureau's Desert District Manager Tim Salt said the agency had considered the effects of its activities on endangered species in individual areas, seeking the advice of the Wildlife Service on more than 150 occasions. But he acknowledged that the settlement commits the bureau to a swift, sweeping review of its endangered species management across the region.