A trio of wilderness bills will be up for consideration in the House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday, including one that would protect more than 190,000 acres of Southern California desert and forests.
Rep. Mary Bono Mack's (R-Calif.), H.R. 3682 would protect Interior Department and Forest Service land that is home to the threatened bighorn sheep, bald eagle, desert tortoise and other species by creating four new wilderness areas and adding to six existing areas. In addition, it would add about 5,000 acres to the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.
Another 41,000 acres of Joshua Tree National Park would be labeled "potential wilderness" until the National Park Service settles property claims, at which point they would become true wilderness areas. In addition, 31 miles of rivers would be labeled "wild and scenic." The designation would encompass sections of the North Fork San Jacinto River, Fuller Mill Creek, Palm Canyon Creek and Bautista Creek.
The administration supports the proposal, along with another wilderness measure from Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) (H.R. 2632) that would designate nearly 20,000 acres of land in northeast New Mexico as wilderness. The Sabinoso Wilderness Area would encompass cliffs and canyons, including the 1,000 foot-deep Canon Largo.
Elena Daly, director of the National Landscape Conservation System, told the House Parks Subcommittee last year that the Bureau of Land Management is working on a land exchange to acquire state-owned inholdings inside the proposed wilderness and is in discussions with private landowners on conservation easements or acquiring those inholdings as well.
The administration also likes H.R. 3022 from Reps. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) to create the John Krebs Wilderness in the California's Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park
The Krebs wilderness would be about 70,000 acres in the Mineral King valley, the site Krebs helped add to the national park in 1978 after the Walt Disney Co. attempted to build a ski area there. Krebs, then a Democratic congressman from Fresno, Calif., lost his subsequent re-election attempt.
The bill would also add an additional 43,500 acres to an existing wilderness area within the park.
The committee will also consider H.R. 554, which would direct the Interior Department to develop guidelines for the inventory and monitoring of paleontological resources on federal lands using scientific principles and expertise. It passed the Senate during the 109th Congress.
The Forest Service has previously said that it supported the purpose of the bill but added that paleontological resources were already protected by the Organic Administration Act of 1897, the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979 and the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 1988.
H.R. 5680 would amend certain laws relating to Native Americans, and for others purposes. The bill was originally slated to be considered last month but was pulled from the markup due to needed technical corrections.