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U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall have introduced a bill to protect the Organ Mountains in Dona Ana County. The New Mexico Democrats said Thursday the Organ Mountains Desert Peaks Wilderness Act would create a 259,000-acre wilderness area and a 100,000-acre conservation area. They said the bill would allow continued public use while protecting the Organ Mountains' granite peaks and the volcanic cinder cones of the Potrillo Mountains.
New Mexico's U.S. senators on Thursday announced a plan to create thousands of acres of federally designated wilderness in Do a Ana County, including protection for the Organ Mountains.
U.S. Sens. Jeff Bingaman and Tom Udall, both D-N.M., introduced a bill that would designate 259,000 acres of land as wilderness, the highest level of federal protection. Also, the bill would place another 100,000 acres into a national conservation area, a type of protection that varies depending on the specific conditions set by Congress.
For the first time in 20 years of battles, a bill that would put one-sixth of all Utah land into formal wilderness areas will receive a congressional hearing.
The "America's Red Rock Wilderness" bill pushed heavily by national environmental groups will have a hearing on Oct. 1 before the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands, the subcommittee announced Thursday.
A new wilderness proposal for the Rocky Mountain Front is making the public rounds, but isn't ready for legislation yet.
The plan affects a 300,000-acre strip of public land along the eastern edge of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex, where the Lewis and Clark and Helena national forests meet private ranches and farms.
Pitkin and Eagle county commissioners agreed Monday they don't want to referee a fight between advocates of a Wilderness designation for public lands and user groups that don't want their access to backcountry lands restricted.
Their discussion in a joint meeting hinged over the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign. The Wilderness Workshop, based in Carbondale, is heading a coalition of environmental groups that wants to secure special protection for between 400,000 and 450,000 acres of public lands in Pitkin, Eagle, Garfield, Gunnison and Summit counties.
Advocates of wilderness campaign say it provides needed protection, while foes say it blocks their access to forest
A season has started that promises to deliver lots of hard hits, adept maneuvers and maybe even a punt or two.
No, it's not the pro football season, which started last night. It's the kickoff of the Hidden Gems campaign to create more protected wilderness lands in western Colorado.
Forest Service officials want to move ahead with a timber sale in southeast Alaska's Tongass National Forest that could produce 73 million board feet of timber, despite concerns that the logging would interfere with one of the primary wildlife corridors on Prince of Wales Island.
In the first deal of its kind for the conservation group, the Redding-based Shasta Land Trust has handed over more than 600 acres to the U.S. Forest Service to expand the Ishi Wilderness in Tehama County.
With funding from a private foundation, the group in 2007 purchased two parcels totaling 648 acres for $280,000. The donation was completed last week.
The Ishi Wilderness, 20 miles east of Red Bluff, comprises 41,000 acres in the Lassen National Forest. What makes it unique among wilderness areas is its low elevation.
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.
Mark Boyar hikes near the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie. He and other volunteers have helped transform the once-neglected valley.
As the river swirls around the rock where he is perched, Mark Boyar looks perfectly at home.
After more than two decades working to polish this recreational jewel, for Boyar the valley along the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie River has become his second home, even a member of his family.
"It really is my oldest child, " he said.
