The U.S. House of Representatives on Friday passed a far-reaching bill to provide new wilderness protections to 1.5 million acres of federal lands — 535,000 acres of which are in California, an area roughly 18 times the size of the city of San Francisco.
The measure also would ban mining around the Grand Canyon and set aside more than 1,000 miles of rivers in California and other Western states from dams and other development.
Approved by the Democratic majority on a 227-200 vote, the bill would be the largest wilderness preservation legislation in 12 years. That is when President Obama signed The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009, which set aside 2.1 million acres of federal land as wilderness. To become law, it still must pass the U.S. Senate. President Biden has said he will sign it if it reaches his desk.
Among the areas slated for new wilderness protections in California are federally owned lands in Redwood National Park, and along the Eel and Trinity rivers in Northern California, the Carrizo Plain in central California, and the San Gabriel Mountains in Southern California.
“Over the past year with lockdowns and isolation we have seen how important getting outside has been for our well-being,” said Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, one of the bill’s sponsors. “We all depend on the ecological, economic and mental health benefits that our public lands provide.”
Under the Wilderness Act of 1964, a landmark environmental law signed by President Lyndon Johnson, new logging, mining, road building, oil and gas drilling and other development is prohibited on federally owned like national forests, national parks and Bureau of Land Management preserves that are designated as wilderness areas.
The act describes wilderness as “an area where the Earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Wilderness designation is the highest level of protection on federal lands. Overall, the federal government owns about 28% of all 2.3 billion acres that make up the United States, and of that federal land, 109 million acres is designated as wilderness, or about 5% of the entire country.
Critics of Friday’s bill said it would limit economic activity. Many asserted that the federal government already owns too much land.
“Everything we enjoy on this planet is either grown or mined,” said Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Roseville. “And fortunately nature has given us a super abundance of resources and left it to us to responsibly reap and to manage this bounty. But it is precisely these resources that the Left has waged war against for an entire generation. The very things that make us prosperous and comfortable are the things the Left attempts to place off limits.”
The bill, known formally as the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act, still must pass the U.S. Senate, where Democrats hold a very narrow majority due to the ability of Vice President Kamala Harris to break ties.
Supporters say its language may have to be added to a larger bill, like President Biden’s proposed proposed infrastructure plan, or a budget bill at the end of the year, to overcome a possible Republican filibuster that would otherwise require at least 60 votes for passage.
For now, environmental groups are celebrating. They said the bill would expand tourism, recreation and fish and wildlife.
“Protecting nature and increasing access to the outdoors provides immense benefits to our health, economy and environment — especially at a time we need it most,” said Roberto Morales, a senior Sierra Club staff member and chairman of the Nature for All Coalition.
The bill would expand wilderness protections in Arizona, California, Colorado and Washington. Among its highest profile items, it would ban new uranium mining claims on 1 million acres north and south of the Grand Canyon. The measure also would establish new wilderness on 660,000 acres of public lands in Colorado in the San Juan Mountains, Maroon Bells area near Aspen, along the Continental Divide and other areas. And it would create 126,000 acres of new wilderness designations in Washington state’s Olympic National Forest, along with designating 19 rivers in the forest and Olympic National Park as wild and scenic rivers.
Specifically in California, the bill would:
– Establish 317,000 acres in Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties as wilderness, along with designating 379 miles of new wild and scenic rivers.
– Designate 245,000 acres of new wilderness in the Los Padres National Forest in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, and the Carrizo Plain National Monument in San Luis Obispo County, along with 159 miles of new wild and scenic rivers. The measure also establishes a 400 mile-long trail, the Condor National Scenic Trail, which would connect the northern and southern portion of the Los Padres National Forest.
– In the Los Angeles region, the bill would expand the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument by 109,000 acres to include the western Angeles National Forest. It also would set aside 30,000 acres as protected wilderness and 45 miles of wild and scenic rivers throughout the San Gabriel range.
– Also in Southern California, the bill would add roughly 191,000 acres to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The land, known as the “Rim of the Valley” is a wildlife corridor for mountain lions, eagles and other animals, stretching from the Simi Hills and Santa Susanas to the Verdugos and San Gabriel Mountains.
