Last week, additional wilderness areas on the Hill moved closer to reality when the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee sent Rep. Mary Bono Mack's local wilderness bill to the full Senate.
Both California senators, Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, support the bill and will encourage its passage when it goes before the Senate. Only three months ago on June 9, the House of Representatives passed Bono Mack's H.R. 3682, "The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act of 2008." The bill will protect more than 190,000 acres as wilderness and designate 31 miles of wild and scenic rivers in Riverside County.
"Some of our region's most spectacular lands are now one step closer to getting the federal protection they deserve," said Bono Mack. "It has been through much hard work and collaboration that we are at this point today, and I applaud Senators Feinstein and Boxer for working to move this bill forward in the Senate.
However, the Senate committee's approval came with amendments to Bono Mack's original proposal - one developed with extensive participation of the community, interest groups, and fire and forest professionals.
The most significant change was the removal of explicit authority to take fire prevention measures, such as prescribed burning, in the wilderness areas. While some people, such as Geary Hund of Idyllwild, stressed that the Wilderness Act clearly authorizes pre-suppression and suppression projects, the fear was that this language might establish a precedent allowing for exemptions or modifications of the Wilderness Act's original language in future legislation.
"The language in the bill would have re-enforced and re-stated authorities," he said. "The Forest Service, in this instance, can take necessary action in wilderness areas for wildlife and public safety."
Hund was not alone with this viewpoint of the existing authorities. Since he is not in D.C., he couldn't comment on the reasons for removing and modifying the language.
"In general, this occurred primarily to clarify and bring the language into alignment with past wilderness bills;' said Dan Smuts, Wilderness Society, agreeing with Hund. "The local community, the Forest Service and [Bureau of Land Management] BLM have authority to fight fire and to do fuel and pre-suppression work in these areas."
The new language requires the Secretary of Agriculture to establish procedures for approving necessary action to fight a fire within any of these wilderness areas. This includes delegating the authority to make the decision to the San Bernardino forest supervisor or the San Jacinto district manager. Traditionally, the Forest Service chief makes this decision at the time of the fire. But if the authority is delegated to a local official, some time may be saved in fighting fire within the Wilderness area.
The other major amendment struck the following, "Nothing in the designation of the Cahuilla Mountain Wilderness by this title affects the unique cultural artifacts and sacred sites of the Indian tribes that are contained within that wilderness area, as identified by Indian tribes and the Forest Service."
"These amendments are the result of negotiations that took place in order to ensure that there would be strong bipartisan support for the bill, which there was," said Jennifer May, Bono Mack communications director.
Last week, prior to the Senate committee scheduling the bill's mark-up, hundreds of wilderness supporters convened in Washington, D.C. to support the passage of many pending wilderness proposals. The wilderness advocates went from Senate office to Senate office urging action on the moribund legislation.
Prior to the committee's unexpected action, many wilderness adherents were not hopeful the bills would be enacted in this Congress. Now, they are very optimistic of final passage.
Nearly nine in 10 Americans believe that protecting public land as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System is important, according to a July Zogby International poll of 1,039 likely voters across the country. These voters view as "very important" (57 percent) or "somewhat important" (30 percent) the protection of publicly owned land as wilderness, leaving it just as it is. The support cuts across political parties, regions, age groups, and ethnic and religious backgrounds.
The two local wilderness areas will be the Cahuilla Mountain (5,600 acres) and the South Fork San Jacinto (20,200 acres). The Santa Rosa National Monument boundaries are expanded and several areas in Riverside County that BLM manages will become wilderness areas, too.
Segments of the North Fork of the San Jacinto River, Fuller Mill Creek, Palm Canyon Creek and Bautista Creek will be designated as wild and scenic rivers.
