SGVN/Staff Photo by Eric Reed

SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS - Parishioners of myriad Christian churches, from Catholic to Quaker, gathered in the San Gabriel Mountains on Saturday for an Easter service that combined prayer with politics.

The group shared communion under a grove of pine trees and sang "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" as the East Fork of the San Gabriel River gurgled in the distance.

And once the religious service was over, they wrote letters to Rep. David Dreier, R-San Dimas, asking him to give the area around them the highest environmental protection allowed under federal law.

Citing years of collaboration and compromise among varied interest groups, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, announced plans to protect more than 26,000 acres of land in Mill Creek and Big and Little Cottonwood canyons.

Amid celebratory fanfare at a Thursday press conference, Matheson was joined by Salt Lake Mayor Ralph Becker and Sandy Mayor Tom Dolan in a push to garner support for federal legislation he says he plans to introduce next week.

Pressure Ridge; © Greg Burke

One year after it was permanently protected as wilderness, life in the Badlands continues as it always has; the golden eagles and peregrine falcons still circle overhead; the desert wildflowers are starting to bloom; hikers, hunters, horseback riders and birdwatchers revel in the solitude of wilderness. But there is one crucial difference between today and a year ago: Now that this area is protected as wilderness, we know that whatever changes come our way, the Badlands will be there for our children and grandchildren to enjoy the silent arrival of spring in Oregon's high desert.

It can be seen at Canyonlands National Park in Utah, North Cascades National Park in Washington, Redwood National Park in California and the Appalachian National Scenic Trail stretching from Georgia to Maine. All of those and many more additions to the National Parks system came during the years Udall was Secretary of the Interior under Presidents Kennedy and Johnson.

It can be seen in the enactment of major environmental laws, including ones to protect endangered species.

Norman Driscoll-Washington Post

Stewart L. Udall, who as secretary of the interior in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations launched a series of far-reaching conservation reforms that made him one of the most significant figures in protecting America's natural environment, died March 20 at his home in Santa Fe, N.M. He was 90 and had complications from a recent fall.

Mr. Udall had served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a Democrat from Arizona when President John F. Kennedy tapped him for the top job at the Interior Department.

PIERRE, S.D. - There's growing support in South Dakota for more wilderness designations in the West River region, the large part of the state lying to the west of the Missouri River. The support is shown in a study by Moore Information, which found solid favor across party lines, and among all age groups. When asked specifically about a proposal to designate parts of the Buffalo Gap National Grassland in southwestern South Dakota as wilderness, nearly six in ten voters supported the idea.

Sen. Tim Johnson, D-S.D., recently announced support of some of the work of a good group of individuals who have been working towards establishing wilderness status on a small amount of Forest Service lands down around Indian Creek and Red Shirt in the Badlands.

I know these lands; they are fragile and beautiful.

DEER LODGE - The Obama administration could support the mandate in Sen. Jon Tester's forest bill to log a set number of acres every year as a pilot project, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said here Saturday.

Vilsack, in a change of position for the administration, said some changes to the measure, which mandates a set number of acres be logged every year, could be tried to see how well it works.