Daily Wilderness News Clips

Conservation experts say Congress could by year's end place wilderness protections on as many as 2 million acres, nearly as much as has been designated in the past half-decade.

With little fanfare, Congress has embarked on a push to protect as many as a dozen pristine areas this year in places ranging from the glacier-fed streams of the Wild Sky Wilderness here to West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest. By the end of the year, conservation experts predict, this drive could place as much as 2 million acres of unspoiled land under federal control, a total that rivals the wilderness acreage set aside by Congress over the previous five years.

Two pieces of federal legislation aimed at protecting nearly 14,000 acres of local wilderness and resolving the decades-long dispute between the city of Santa Clarita and Cemex were officially endorsed by the city council this week, bringing both bills one step closer to enactment.

Created through a bipartisan congressional effort spearheaded by Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, both the Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act and the Soledad Canyon Mine Act will have significant impact in the Santa Clarita Valley if approved.

In May, Congress gave more than 106,000 acres of mountains and old-growth forests with salmon-filled streams the strictest level of federal protection.

Rep. Nick J. Rahall may try to expand protections for the New and Gauley rivers all the way to their confluence at Gauley Bridge.

Rahall announced the idea late last week during a ceremony celebrating a National Parks Conservation Association award for his work protecting public lands.

"I do not believe we are done protecting this river - this mighty resource," Rahall said during a speech at the ceremony at Sandstone Falls Visitor Center east of Beckley. "The legacy is not complete."

The Bush administration is pressing in its waning months in office to implement a spate of rule and policy changes that could reshape the face of the West.

As America races to secure its Mexican border with 700 miles of double- and triple-layered fencing, wildlife that have never known political boundaries will have no choice but to recognize them now. The fence, originally intended for urban areas, now slices through fragile wildlife habitats that are supposed to be protected by public lands.

Environmentalists are celebrating Monday's house passage of a bill that will protect Riverside County wilderness areas.

Wendy Sparks of the California Desert and Mountain Wilderness Campaign says there are several.

"We're looking at 80,000 acres in the Joshua Tree National Park, the North Fork and South Fork of the San Jacinto River as well as Cahuilla Mountain near Anza."

The conservation bill sponsored by Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack heads for the Senate. It is getting bi-partisan support.

Another lawsuit seeks to block development of a copper and silver mine beneath the federal Cabinet Mountains Wilderness in northwestern Montana.

The House passed legislation Monday that would protect forest, chaparral and desert lands in western Riverside County from development and roads by designating more than 190,000 acres as wilderness and 30 miles of streams as "wild and scenic rivers."

The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act, authored by Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, now goes to the U.S. Senate.