After receiving more than 100 comments about his wilderness proposal, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, has decided to formally introduce legislation this month, possibly as early as this week, to preserve more than 20,000 acres of canyons and mountains in North County.
It is Issa's hope that Congress will pass the legislation designating 13,635 acres of wilderness in the Beauty Mountain area north of Warner Springs and 7,796 acres of wilderness in the Palomar Mountain area by the end of 2010, said Frederick Hill, an Issa spokesman in Washington.
Issa's proposal builds upon recent wilderness additions in Riverside County, and the two areas are directly across the county line from existing wilderness areas.
"The congressman has made a decision that he is going to move ahead with the bill as originally proposed," Hill said in a telephone interview Friday.
Issa, a five-term congressman, announced his plan in July, with the goal of obtaining feedback from the public before introducing a bill.
Hill said 89 favorable comments were received, as well as 17 comments expressing concern.
He said some of the latter were submitted by people who fear that the plan will limit opportunities for off-road-vehicle recreation.
The wilderness designation generally restricts motor vehicles, structures, mining and road building, while allowing hiking and horseback riding.
The Issa legislation would permit a campground and corrals on the edge of the Beauty Mountain Wilderness and would not restrict firefighting efforts in either area.
"The feedback I have received about protecting these lands has been overwhelmingly positive," Issa said in a statement. "This bill is intended to preserve not only the land, but also the access that allows the public to appreciate it. I'm particularly pleased to move forward with legislation that preserves land in a way that does not infringe on the rights of property owners."
Hill said the 21,431 acres targeted by the plan is mostly federal lands, but some is private property bought by an environmental coalition that was seeking to preserve it.
Issa's plan piggybacks on the March signing of a massive national wilderness bill by President Barack Obama that set aside nearly 200,000 acres of wildlands in Riverside County.
Conservationists are cheering the plan.
They characterize the proposed Agua Tibia Wilderness addition, with its oak woodlands, chaparral-carpeted canyons and pine forests, as a popular place for hiking, backpacking and hunting.
And they say that the 5,548-foot Beauty Mountain, with its oak groves, meadows and seasonal springs, is a backcountry jewel.
But it is a jewel that people should continue to be able to drive to, said John Stewart, a resource consultant for the California Association of Four Wheel Drive Clubs in San Diego, who objects to the plan.
"We have a lot of concerns about the Beauty Mountain area," he said. "That's an area where a lot of people like to do drives in the wintertime and play in the snow up there."
It's also a place where wildflowers flourish in the spring and valley dwellers can escape the summer heat, he said.
Specific concerns aside, Stewart said there is a general concern about the cumulative effect of the many wilderness bills that have been passed in recent years.
"A nibble here and a nibble there, and all of a sudden we are starting to lose a lot of recreational access that impacts a large segment of the population," he said.
