While 2009 closed with a late December hearing on Senator Tester’s Forest Jobs and Recreation Act and the introduction of a host of western wilderness bills, including Sen. Feinstein’s California Desert Protection Act (see last month’s Congressional update), 2010 likewise began with a full slate of wilderness bills ready for consideration, as well as proposals ripe for introduction.
On January 21, the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands held a hearing on H.R. 3914, the San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act, introduced by Rep. John Salazar (D-CO). A companion bill, S. 2762, has been introduced in the Senate by Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO).
The legislation designates over 33,000 acres of wilderness and 20,000 acres as a special management area, ensuring that pristine forests and low elevation lands in southwestern Colorado remain undisturbed. The San Juan Mountains Wilderness Act would also help establish crucial corridor links with wilderness areas to the south, providing important wildlife corridors and habitat, as well as protect riparian areas, key watersheds, ancestral puebloan sites and artifacts, and spectacular recreation opportunities.
Equally remarkable about the bill is the overwhelming support from the county governments, surrounding towns, many regional businesses, adjacent landowners and homeowners associations, ranchers, and local citizens, among others. Much of this backing is due to the time and effort that Rep. Salazar and his staff have spent with the stakeholders, listening to them, addressing their concerns, and sharing information.
Other Colorado lands would be protected under Rep. Diana DeGette’s (D-CO) recently introduced the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2009 (H.R. 4289), which would designate over 850,000 acres of new and expanded wilderness areas throughout the state.
Efforts to protect the very first grasslands wilderness in the nation got a huge boost last month when Sen. Tim Johnson (D-SD) announced his intention to introduce legislation to protect approximately 40-50,000 acres of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands in the western part of South Dakota as wilderness. The proposed areas represent the largest block of prairie wilderness left in North America, offering a vast array of landforms, unique plant life, vertebrate fossils, and spectacular scenery. The area provides hikers, hunters, rock collectors, birders, horseback riders, and the science community an unmatched wilderness experience in the Great Plains, similar in scale to wilderness opportunities in the Rockies and Alaska.
In his opinion piece, printed in the Rapid City Journal on January 16, Sen. Johnson writes: “Western South Dakota is blessed with some of the nation’s unique and most treasured landscapes. In 2002, U.S. Forest Service under the Bush Administration recognized the value of areas of undisturbed prairie in the Buffalo Gap National Grassland and recommended them for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. I believe it is time to move forward with what would be the country’s first national grassland wilderness so that future generations can experience this area as it has been for hundreds of years. Finding the right mix of public land management requires balance and careful consideration. I have already begun reaching out to those who are most closely tied to this area, and I look forward to working with the many stakeholders to shape sound legislation.”
In addressing the reasons he is considering this legislation, the Senator writes, “Wilderness offers unique opportunities for the public to enjoy, including hunting, fishing, hiking, camping, horseback riding, wildlife viewing, recreational rock collecting and many others. By limiting road building, structures, and recreational motorized and mechanized use, wilderness protects the land’s natural character and open space. Furthermore, the Forest Service retains the ability to combat fire, insects, invasive species and disease. It’s also important to understand that wilderness protects and preserves the rights of ranchers to use these lands for long-held livestock grazing purposes. The Wilderness Act and Congressional Grazing Guidelines clearly state that established grazing shall continue, with the reasonably necessary use of motorized vehicles to maintain it.”
The South Dakota Wild Grasslands Coalition (of which the Campaign for America’s Wilderness, Pew Environment Group is a member) applauded Sen. Johnson’s intentions. In its news release, South Dakota Wildlife Federation board member Terry Mayes, a Coalition member, said, "I know the Senator has always had an abiding interest in the wild things and places of South Dakota. His action in initiating this legislation is further proof of his convictions." Mayes is a retired South Dakota Highway Patrol commander.
And finally, on January 28, Oregon Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley introduced a measure to designate more than 16,000 acres of wilderness in the Cathedral Rock and Horse Heaven areas near Oregon's lower John Day River.
Onward to new and exciting wilderness opportunities in 2010.
