Wilderness News

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.

The House passed a bill Monday sponsored by Rep. Mary Bono Mack that would designate nearly 200,000 acres of public land in and around the Coachella Valley as wilderness areas and provide them with more federal protections.

"I am thrilled that we are one step closer to preserving some of the most scenic and environmentally sensitive areas in our district," said Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs.

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 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 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 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.

Thanks to the Las Vegas Sun for its May 31 editorial about protecting Utah's native rock art that is threatened by oil and gas leasing.

Here in Southern Nevada we have our own special place full of rich cultural resources, including probably over 1,000 petroglyphs. This area is Gold Butte out by Mesquite and, like the Nine Mile Canyon, it also faces a looming threat, but in Gold Butte it is from irresponsible off-road vehicle users.

If any federal lawmaker ever deserved the collective stink eye from Oregonians, it's U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn, the Oklahoma Republican who is blocking two Oregon wilderness bills.

Last winter, Oregon Sens. Ron Wyden and Gordon Smith introduced a bill that would increase wilderness protections in the Mount Hood area by 125,000 acres and grant wild and scenic river protections to an additional 80 miles of Oregon rivers.

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 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.