Boxer ushers in wilderness legislation
By David Whitney -- Bee Washington Bureau
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Saturday, May 11, 2002
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Barbara Boxer said Friday that she will soon introduce legislation designating an additional 2.5 million acres of federal land in California as wilderness, the first step in a long and controversial process of wilderness additions that she said probably will be done piecemeal over several years.

Boxer, D-Calif., released a long list of environmental organizations and community leaders from throughout the state backing her legislation.

But the bill also drew immediate Republican opposition, and outdoor recreation groups expressed concern.

The largest wilderness additions would be in southeastern and Southern California. Boxer is proposing about 425,000 acres of new wilderness in the Inyo National Forest, including a new 282,880-acre White Mountain Wilderness Area.

In Central and Northern California, the legislation would add a 51,790-acre Yuki Wilderness Area to the Mendocino National Forest, create a new 68,480-acre Mineral King Wilderness Area in the Sequoia National Forest, establish five new wilderness areas totaling about 70,000 acres in the Tahoe National Forest, and add 97,590 acres of potential timberlands to the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area east of Willow Creek.

Nearly 550,000 acres of the new wilderness would be on lands managed by the Bureau of Reclamation, mostly in Southern California.

Among the new Bureau of Land Management wilderness areas in Northern California would be the 41,100-acre Kings Range area of the agency's Ukiah district, described by Jay Watson of the Wilderness Society as "truly one of the wildest beaches in the entire state."

"We strongly support this legislation," Watson said. "California has a long and rich tradition of wilderness legislation, and this continues that tradition."

Keith Hammond, communications director for the California Wilderness Coalition, said some of the areas that the legislation would permanently protect are under threat of logging. He cited the areas near Willow Creek where logging has been held up by an injunction issued in a lawsuit filed by environmentalists.

Boxer will unveil her legislation at a wilderness rally today at the Presidio in San Francisco.

"California has always been about its intrinsic beauty," she said in a telephone press conference with reporters Friday. "We want to make sure when we have 50 million people, which is our projected population in 2025, that we have places that are wilderness for those people to visit."

About 14 million acres in California, roughly 14 percent of its total land base, is designated wilderness, off-limits to logging, mining and other forms of commercial development. Such designations also usually exclude use of motorized vehicles.

Don Amador, a political organizer with an off-road-vehicle group called the Blue Ribbon Coalition, said vehicle access to hundreds of miles of forest trails and roads would be cut off by Boxer's legislation, including a popular road in the Downeyville Ranger District of the Tahoe National Forest.

"If they go ahead with that, they will have a real fight on their hands," Amador said. Besides, he said, "most of us who went through the wilderness debates of the 1980s feel that enough acres have already been set aside."

Some Lake Tahoe mountain bikers also are concerned about the bill.

Boxer's draft legislation would cut off access to about 200 miles of bike trails near the Big Meadows area of South Lake Tahoe, said Dave VonDerau, a mountain biker from the area.

Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin, declared his opposition, saying wilderness designations "simply do not strike the proper balance for either environment or people."

"Furthermore, this bill would jeopardize already fragile rural economies, cut off renewable sources of forest products, eliminate vital cattle grazing opportunities, hinder water development and endanger both human and animal life with the increased likelihood of catastrophic wildfire," he said.

This is Boxer's first crack at wilderness legislation since her election to the Senate in 1992. Wilderness bills in 1984 and 1994 added almost 11 million acres of protected lands, but only after long and difficult battles.

Boxer acknowledged that she is in for a fight. She said that her proposal most likely will be broken into bits and pieces, with each running the legislative gauntlet separately.

Her bill is not endorsed by her colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., the author of the 1994 wilderness bill and a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that has primary jurisdiction over wilderness bills. Boxer is not on that panel.

Boxer's bill is being carved into regional pieces for introduction in the House.

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-Napa, will introduce the part covering wilderness areas north of Yosemite National Park next week, along with a smaller bill covering additions just in his district.

Thompson stressed that all of the lands covered by the legislation are owned by the Forest Service, the BLM or the National Park Service. In some areas of his district, new wilderness protections will mean better salmon production and better economic prospects from tourism.

"We went all out to make sure access will not be truncated and that hunting can continue," Thompson said in a telephone interview. "I can't imagine any of these wilderness designations will be legislatively easy. But you've got to try."


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Wilderness Proposal

In Northern and Central California, the legislation would:

*Add a 51,790-acre Yuki Wilderness Area to the Mendocino National Forest

*Create a new 68,480-acre Mineral King Wilderness Area in the Sequoia National Forest

*Establish five new wilderness areas totaling about 70,000 acres in the Tahoe National Forest

*Add 97,590 of potential timberlands to the Trinity Alps Wilderness Area east of Willow Creek.

Among the new Bureau of Land Management wilderness areas in Northern California:

*The 41,100-acre Kings Range area of the agency's Ukiah district

In addition, Boxer is proposing about 425,000 acres of new wilderness in the Inyo National Forest, including a new 282,880-acre White Mountain Wilderness Area.

http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/environment/story/2632277p-3253539c.html

Boxer wants far more wilderness
She introduces bill to add 2.5 million acres in California
Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer
Saturday, May 11, 2002
©2002 San Francisco Chronicle


In the most ambitious attempt to expand California's protected lands in eight years, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., has introduced legislation that would designate 2.5 million acres of the state's forests, deserts and river canyons as federal wilderness.

The bill is supported by companion legislation sponsored by Reps. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, and Hilda Solis, D-El Monte.

But rapid passage of the legislation appears unlikely, given that Republicans dominate the House of Representatives -- and they generally oppose additional wilderness designations.

Under Boxer's bill, 77 areas from Mexico to Oregon would receive wilderness designation, while portions of 22 rivers would be protected under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

Two additional rivers -- Cache Creek and the East Fork of the Carson River - - would be studied for possible wild or scenic status.

Boxer's bill would dramatically increase the amount of California land permanently protected from development and motor vehicles. Under most circumstances, residential and resort development, oil drilling, logging, grazing, mining and off-road vehicles are prohibited in federal wilderness areas.

Passage would mark the most significant increase in state wilderness lands since the California Desert Protection Act was adopted in 1994. The desert act preserved about 7 million acres of land in Southern California.

The bill would quash many of the conservation battles now brewing in the state in the favor of environmentalists, including a U.S. Forest Service proposal to drill for oil in the Los Padres National Forest in Central California.

"It doesn't take much to destroy the natural beauty and wonder of these places," Boxer said. "These lands are our responsibility -- we must make sure future generations can see them as they were when people first ventured on them."

Environmentalists responded enthusiastically.

"This is an exciting day for California," said Jay Watson, the California director of the Wilderness Society.

"California has a long and rich tradition of wilderness preservation," said Watson. "Wilderness and free-flowing rivers help define the quality of life here. Congress has passed more wilderness legislation affecting California than any other state, and this bill will continue in that tradition."

The reaction generally was negative from groups favoring multiple uses of federal wildlands, including logging, mining and off-road vehicle touring.

"California already has a sufficient amount of land designated as wilderness," said Chris Nance, a spokesman for the California Forestry Association.

"Moreover, we don't believe additional wilderness will be acceptable to the people living and working in the areas where the designations will occur -- mainly because it prevents people from accessing those areas," he said.

Boxer said the bill would not stop economic development in and around the state's wildlands.

"Tourism is California's No. 1 industry," she said during a media briefing. "People will be so excited to see land that looks pretty much the way it looked when it was created."

Positions on the bill in the Senate and House of Representatives are firmly divided along party lines.

"None of my Republican colleagues in Congress has endorsed the (House) bills, but that doesn't mean they won't work with us," said Boxer. "(Passage) will probably be bit by bit, year by year. It took 14 years for the desert protection act to pass."

Thompson, the companion bill co-sponsor, said the legislation probably won't make it through the House this year, "though it could squeeze through as part of a negotiation at the end of the session.

"The main thing is, we're going to keep working on it. My district has most of the salmon habitat in the state, and salmon are extremely important to my constituents. To a large degree, the quality of the wilderness surrounding the salmon streams reflects the size of the salmon run."

Republican congressional representatives labeled the bill "dead on arrival."

"Any wilderness bill on the House side has to go through the Subcommittee on National Parks, Recreation and Public Lands," said Brian Kennedy, press secretary for Rep. George Radanovich, R-Fresno.

"My boss is the chairman of that subcommittee," said Kennedy, "and he will consider Sen. Boxer's wilderness bill when she introduces legislation to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Even then, I wouldn't give it a hundred-to-one shot of making it through the subcommittee. In other words, it doesn't have much of a shot. Congressman Radanovich is enthusiastically opposed -- he considers it an egregious imposition on multiple uses, industries and the taxpayers who pay for the maintenance of these lands."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/11/BA106854.DTL

Are you going to go to the protest rally?
http://www.crowley-offroad.com/protest_rally.htm

Have you signed the petition to oppose this?
http://www.petitiononline.com/boxer/petition.html

Jon, I'm gonna use parts of your stuff about the rally in my events section and link to your page about it for the full deal, OK.

Originally posted by landuseorc
Jon, I'm gonna use parts of your stuff about the rally in my events section and link to your page about it for the full deal, OK.

Brad,

That's great. Just be aware that the date is still tentative.

Looking to make it concrete next week.

Jon

Let me know if anyyhing changes and I'll make the changes on my end too.

Editorial - Bakersfield Californian

Wilderness tag opposed

Many Californians, myself included, are concerned about the closure of off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreational areas throughout California. More and more lands that were once available for OHVs have been closed down due to a variety of reasons. Most often environmental groups have used the Endangered Species Act to file lawsuits against federal agencies.

Now environmental groups and Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., are pushing for new Wilderness Area designations as another way to eliminate access to our public lands.

This is of great concern to me because the primary effect of wilderness designation is the reduction of access especially for recreation (the "no mechanized transport" rule of the Wilderness Designation Act, prevents even bicycle access).

These continual land closures are really a recipe for disaster. Statistics from the California Department of Parks and Recreation show that the actual acreage available for OHV use in California has declined by 47 percent in recent years while registration of OHVs has practically doubled.

Squeezing more OHVs onto less land can only result in an increase in illegal off-road activities in areas not designated for motorized recreational use as well as increased impacts in legal OHV areas.

This most extreme of land designation should not be taken lightly. Wilderness has real, long-term consequences for California. Please contact your representatives and ask that they oppose any new wilderness area designations.

MIKE SCOTT, Bakersfield

http://www.bakersfield.com/opinion/story/1087973p-1194517c.html

More news coverage:

Orange County Register
http://www.ocregister.com/sitearchives/2002/5/11/local/wilderness00511cci1.shtml

LA Times
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-000033339may11.story

San Diego Union-Tribune
http://www.uniontrib.com/news/uniontrib/sat/news/news_1n11wild.html

Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/environment/story/2632277p-3253539c.html

San Francisco Chronicle
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2002/05/11/BA106854.DTL

San Luis Obispo Tribune
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispotribune/living/community/3267316.htm

Im very frustraited. How do you do it Jon? You are a true soldier for the OHV community.

I went and looked at the rally site again and it has only had 328 hits! Well I just had a thought and maybe you can elaborate or comment on it.

Other locations could include Senator Boxer's offices in:
San Francisco, San Diego, San Bernadino, Fresno & Los Angeles or
wherever you can get enough people together to make it worthwhile.


Can I organise suport for a rally in L.A.? And, can we recruit people to organise in other cities. I have no problem traveling but I bet many people do. So lets try and drum up direct involment from people by giving them a local forum.

What are your thoughts?
Kevin


Pete, gimme a call on this.

Kevin,

We have some support for a rally in San Bernadino from the .
American Sand Association folks (http://209.164.8.75/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=6653&FORUM_ID=44&CAT_ID=1&Topic_Title=Protest+Rally&Forum_Title=Wide+Open+Sand) .

If you want to help make an event happen in LA. Start rallying the troops. I would love for us to have 3-4 locaitons all happening in unison.

Jon

At each main location where a protest rally will occur, the following positions need to be filled:

Press/Media Leader - Make contacts with the media. Send out press release(s), etc. to get them hooked on covering the event. Coordinate with the media during the day of the event so they know who amongst us to interview. If we are successful at multiple locations, we need local leaders to coordinate press releases across the state.

Liaison Leader - Make contact with anyone we're going to meet (Doolittle, Boxer's office, State Capitol, Highway Patrol) and find out if we need any permits to gather, parade, etc. Also coordinate with any organizations/people that will be speaking at the event.

Facilities Leader - Scout out the proposed route and meeting area and coordinate any issues with regards to gathering on private property (parking lots, etc.). Also coordinate communications and scouting on the day of the event.

Participation Leader - We need to get the word out to clubs & shops (motorcycle, 4x4, etc.). Coordinate flyer with press/media leader.

This list is a "work in progress". I am sure that many other needs will arise. Please don't hesitate to make suggestions.

If you are interested in helping, please send me an email.

May 15, 2002 -- Boxer formally announces California wilderness bill


"THE WILDERNESS MAP showing proposed wilderness areas outlined in Sen. Barbara Boxer's legislation. See story, " Boxer formally announces California wilderness bill."

By EDMOND JACOBY Staff writer

California's junior senator went on record in San Francisco Saturday with a bill that will set aside new areas as wilderness preserves throughout the state.

There were no surprises in the bill, which has previously been described in the Mountain Democrat from preliminary drafts. The final draft of the legislation will be submitted to the U.S. Senate some time this week.

Concerns expressed by local political figures and officials of water purveyors and recreation organizations in El Dorado County seem to have been addressed in the final version of the bill, at least in part.

As expected, the bill will add to wilderness areas in the county, creating two new wilderness areas, Meiss Meadows and Caples Creek. A channel between the two, roughly running along the route of a four-wheel-drive road between Forty-two Mile picnic ground on Highway 50 near Lovers Leap and the north shore of Caples Lake, is left open for vehicular access.

Such access was an issue for off-road vehicle groups and for El Dorado Irrigation District.

The off-roaders were concerned that their access to places they are accustomed to driving their recreational vehicles would be cut off. EID worried that maintenance of stream beds and flumes and clearing of brush and other forest fire fuels near them would be impeded.

Mechanized equipment, including vehicles but also non-vehicular equipment, is prohibited in a wilderness area.

Caples Creek, which runs from Caples Lake to the Silver Fork of the American River, passes through the Caples Creek Wilderness area designated on maps supplied by Boxer's office. EID continues to be concerned about lack of vehicular access to the creek in that area. The terrain varies between meadowland, forest and smooth granite rock surface.

"The California Wild Heritage Wilderness Act of 2002 will protect approximately 2.5 million acres of public lands in 77 different areas across the state, as well as the free-flowing portions of 22 rivers," Boxer said at the announcement.

"It is crucial that we protect these precious places before it is too late," she said.

"During the last 20 years, 675,000 acres of unprotected wilderness - approximately the size of Yosemite National Park - have lost their wilderness character due to all sorts of activities, such as logging and mining," she said.

According to Boxer, her bill will ensure that the designated areas will remain open for recreational activities, including horseback riding, fishing, hiking, backpacking, rock climbing, cross country skiing, and canoeing. However, the wilderness designation will no longer allow logging, construction, or access by motorized vehicles.

Because much of California's drinking water supply is made up of national forest watersheds, Boxer said, the legislation will protect the quality of drinking water.

On Monday the Inyo County Board of Supervisors passed a resolution directing county staff to convey to Boxer a set of concerns that creation of additional wilderness areas within the county could adversely affect the county and its citizens by restricting public access and reducing county revenues.

E-mail Edmond Jacoby at ejacoby@mtdemocrat.net

Count me in for the sac rally. If there is a rally in SF organized I most likely show up for that one also. I would sign up to help organize it myself, but unfortunately I got too much goin on the next few months to be able to give it the attention it would deserve :(.

Crowdawg, I'm settin up a land-issues section on my site, and I will be putting some info on this and linking to your site about the petition & rally. I get alot of hits from the bay area, hopefully it can spread the word some more.

:usa:

I pulled a bait and switch in chit chat for ya;)