Daily Wilderness News Clips

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.

Today the U.S. House of Representatives passed Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack´s (CA-45) legislation that would preserve over 190,000 acres of scenic desert, forest, and river areas throughout California's 45th District. Broadly supported by local community leaders, elected officials, and local business owners, Bono Mack´s bill - H.R. 3682, the California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act - passed by voice vote today on the House Floor. The bill will now be considered in the U.S. Senate.

Fresh from the creation of the Wild Sky Wilderness, two Democrats have signed onto a bill by Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., to expand a separate federal wilderness area east of Seattle.

Democratic Reps. Jay Inslee and Norm Dicks of Washington State are the first co-sponsors of a bill that would expand the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area by about 22,000 acres.

The House will consider three proposals for new wilderness areas in New Mexico and California later today under suspension of the rules.

All three bills cleared the House Natural Resources Committee by voice vote last month last month. No amendments may be offered under suspension of the rules, and a two-thirds majority is required if a roll call vote is requested.

The House today easily approved three bills to create new wilderness areas in New Mexico and California.

H.R. 2632, from Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), would designate nearly 16,000 acres of land in the northeastern part of New Mexico as wilderness. The Sabinoso Wilderness Area would encompass cliffs and canyons, including the 1,000 foot-deep Canon Largo. The bills allow for continued land inholdings in the wilderness area.

The creation of a national conservation area on public lands around the Gold Butte region south of Mesquite earned strong support among Clark County residents contacted in a recent poll.

The poll, initiated by the Friends of Gold Butte and financed by the Nevada Wilderness Coalition, showed that 66 percent of respondents favored the idea of protecting the wilderness area around Gold Butte, an old mining town 65 miles northeast of Las Vegas.

The U.S. House has approved legislation that would set aside more than 17,600 acres east of Las Vegas as wilderness.

Supporters of the Sabinoso Wilderness Act say the measure would designate the majestic canyons and rugged beauty of one of the finest intact Great Plains ecosystems left in New Mexico.

U.S. Rep. Tom Udall, D-N.M., says he worked with community groups to make it a proposal that everyone could support. He says it's now up to the Senate to consider the measure.

The Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management need better plans for off-road vehicle use on public lands, but the government, ORV users and conservationists all have their own ideas of what they should include, based on a Senate hearing Thursday.

The government is adjusting how it handles ORVs as the number of users increase each year, but Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said there is a disconnect between what the different departments know and what they are doing.

The mission of Friends of Allegheny Wilderness sounds like a classified ad ­ Wanted: individuals or organizations to buy mineral rights to protect a national treasure.

But soliciting buyers for a 5,000-acre tract of land in the Allegheny National Forest may prove more difficult than filling the typical job opening.

All levity aside, FAW takes its mission seriously. Its goal is to maintain the natural character of the Chestnut Ridge, a proposed wilderness area being surveyed for oil and gas exploration in the northern section of the ANF.

Local hikers and outdoors enthusiasts are invited to join like-minded individuals throughout the nation in celebrating National Trails Day on Saturday.

The New Mexico Wilderness Alliance will mark the day with a walk and picnic at the Bar Canyon Day Use area in the Organ Mountains. NMWA's Wilderness Protection Organizer Nathan Small, who is also a member of the Las Cruces City Council, said families are also encouraged to visit one of their favorite wilderness areas.