Protecting America's Wilderness Act H.R.2546

House leadership has decided to incorporate into the measure the following five bills for House floor action: HR 2250, Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation and Working Forests Act, and HR 2642, Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act; and the following three bills that were reported by 20-13 votes: HR 2199, Central Coast Heritage Protection Act, HR 2215, San Gabriel Mountains Foothills and Rivers Protection Act, HR 1708, Rim of the Valley Corridor Preservation Act.

Wilderness Areas

    In 1964, Congress enacted the Wilderness Act, which established the National Wilderness Preservation System as a system of undeveloped federal lands that are protected and managed to preserve their natural condition. Wilderness areas are part of existing units of federal land administered by the four federal land management agencies: the Agriculture Department's Forest Service, and the Interior Department's National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

    Under the law, Congress has the sole authority to designate federal lands as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. According to the committee, there are currently 803 wilderness areas which total more than 111 million acres in 44 states and Puerto Rico. Five percent of all land in the United States is currently designated as wilderness.

Land Use Restrictions

    A wilderness designation generally prohibits commercial activities, motorized access and human infrastructure from the wilderness area. Most bills designating wilderness areas require that the designated wilderness be managed in accordance with the Wilderness Act, although in some cases other activities may be allowed, such as certain preexisting uses or activities.

    Wilderness Act must be managed in part for recreational use, and are generally open to hunting and fishing subject to the management provisions of the underlying federal land (for instance, hunting, fishing and recreational shooting are generally allowed on BLM and Forest Service lands).

National Wild and Scenic Rivers

    The 1968 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act established the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System to preserve free-flowing rivers based on their national significance and outstandingly remarkable values, including scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historical, cultural or similar values.

    The law designated three classes of wild and scenic rivers based on the condition of the river, the amount of development in the river or on the shorelines, and the degree of accessibility by road or trail at the time of designation:

•     Wild Rivers — Rivers or sections of rivers that are free of impoundments and are generally inaccessible except by trail, with unpolluted waters within essentially primitive watersheds or shorelines.

•     Scenic Rivers — Rivers or sections of rivers that are free of impoundments but are accessible in some places by roads, that have largely undeveloped shorelines within largely primitive watersheds.

•     Recreational Rivers — Rivers or sections of rivers that are readily accessible by road or railroad, that may have some development along their shoreline, and which may have previously undergone some impoundment or diversion.

    The system today includes more than 13,400 miles of river in 41 states and Puerto Rico, with much of the system lying in the western United States, according to the committee.

    Typically, rivers are added to the system by an act of Congress, but they may also be added by state nomination with the approval of the Interior Department (less than 10% of federal wild and scenic river designations have been made in this manner). In most cases, prior to adding a river to the system, Congress directs that a study be conducted to determine whether a river area is suitable for wild and scenic designation, with the president subsequently submitting recommendations to Congress.

Management

    Rivers designated by Congress are managed by one of the four federal public land agencies — with the management of lands generally being less restrictive than wilderness areas and management varying with the class of the designated river and the values for which it was included in the system. Generally, wild rivers have the highest level of protection in terms of development and water resource use, scenic rivers an intermediate level, and recreational rivers the least restrictive.

    Road construction, hunting and fishing, and mining and mineral leasing may be permitted, as long as the activities are consistent with the values of the area being protected and with other state and federal laws. Federal agencies must cooperate with state and local governments in developing corridor management plans, and land use restrictions and zoning decisions affecting private land generally are made by local jurisdictions.

Other Land Designations

    National Scenic Areas are created to recognize areas of outstanding natural and scenic value, and receive a level of protection less stringent than designated wilderness area. The first National Scenic Area in the United States was the Mono Basin National Scenic Area in California, which was established in 1984, followed by the much larger Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area established in the Pacific Northwest in 1986.

    Congress can also designate National Recreation Areas that have special natural, cultural or historic significance, and which receive certain protections.

Member Concerns

    Supporters of the bill, primarily Democrats, say it will protect important public lands for the benefit of current and future generations. Particularly given the growing and lasting impacts of climate change, the protection of wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers is becoming critical to preserving the nation's biodiversity and protecting habitats, they argue. The designations will also help safeguard water quality and provide important recreational opportunities, they say, which in turn will help boost rural economies. The designations will also provide important access to water users living in the three western states, they argue, while also protecting access for cultural and heritage uses, maintaining many activities that currently occur on the lands, and balancing the needs of the Defense Department to continue operating in the region.

    Opponents of the bill, primarily Republicans, say it lacks the input and consensus of local stakeholders that is needed to ensure that wilderness and scenic river designations will be accepted, and also lacks the balance required for a bill of this scale. Far too much of the land being designated is for wilderness, they say, which imposes the greatest restrictions on the use of such lands. In particular, those restrictions will severely hamper the Forest Service's large backlog of forest health and restoration work by blocking responsible timber harvests, they argue, stifling the best means to improve forest health and resiliency while also undercutting much needed economic growth for those rural communities. They also say most of the lands in the measure are designated in a manner that is inconsistent with previous designations and existing land uses.

SUMMARY: This bill designates more than 1.36 million acres of federal land in California, Colorado and Washington State as wilderness or potential wilderness areas, and it designates 1,221 river miles in California and Washington state as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

    It also designates another 1.2 million acres of federal land in California for lesser degrees of protected status, including 730,000 acres as a restoration area, 204,000 acres as recreation areas, and 109,000 acres to expand a national monument.

California

    Within the bill's totals, it designates 630,698 acres of federal land in California as wilderness or potential wilderness areas, and 756 river miles in the state as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers Systems. It also adds lands to existing restoration and management areas, studies lands for new recreational trail opportunities, and establishes a partnership between federal, state and local entities to address illegal marijuana operations on federal lands.

Northern California

    Within Northern California, the bill designates almost 313,000 acres of federal land as new, expanded or potential wilderness areas, creates a new 730,000-acre South Fork-Trinity Mad River restoration area, and designates 480 miles of river in as part of the National Wild and Scenic River System.

Land Areas

    The bill designates 18 specified areas in Northern California that total 313,000 acres of federal land as either new, expanded or potential wilderness areas.

     It also designates 730,000 acres of land in Trinity and Humboldt counties as the South Fork-Trinity Mad River restoration area, which would encompass the watersheds of the South Fork Trinity River, Mad River, and North Fork Eel River. The restoration area would be managed by the Forest Service and be used to establish, restore and maintain fire-resilient forests that contain large trees and multistoried canopies, in order to reduce the threat posed by wildfires to local communities and protect area water quality.

    Finally, the measure establishes the 13,177-acre Sanhedrin Conservation Management area in Mendocino Country, and the 7,399-acre Horse Mountain Special Management Area in Humboldt Country, both to be managed by the Forest Service.

Rivers

    The bill adds approximately 480 river miles across 38 rivers within Northern California to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

    The total includes more than 50 river miles along the South Fork Trinity River in the Yolla Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness, to be managed by the Agriculture Department, and more than 27 river miles along the Redwood Creek to be managed by the Interior Department.

Illegal Marijuana Operations

    The Forest Service in 2018 reported that it had eradicated some 1.5 million marijuana plants on National Forest lands. The operators of illegal grow operations harm the forests in numerous ways, frequently leveling hilltops, causing landslides on erosion-prone hillsides, diverting and damming creeks and streams, and poisoning the soil and local waters through excessive use of pesticides.

    Individuals and private landholders, including ranchers, timber companies and forest trusts, have complained that they are increasingly forced to confront criminals and eradicate drug operations from federal land, endangering lives and incurring significant expenses for eradication and reclamation.

    The bill establishes the California Public Lands Remediation Partnership to address illegal marijuana operations on federal lands (known as trespass marijuana operations).

    Under the measure, the partnership would be made up of federal, state and local government officials and private stakeholders, who would seek to facilitate the recovery of lands and waters that have been degraded, damaged or destroyed by illegal marijuana cultivation or another illegal activity.

Other Provisions

    The measure permits the Interior Department to undertake initiatives to restore degraded redwood forest ecosystems in both national and state redwood parks, in partnership with state and local agencies and nongovernmental organizations.

    It also renames the current North Fork Wilderness as the North Fork Eel River Wilderness, and it removes approximately 30 acres of federal land from the Elkhorn Ridge Wilderness.

Central California Coast

    The bill designates more than 287,000 acres of federal land in the Carrizo Plain National Monument and the Los Padres National Forest as components of the National Wilderness Preservation System, and designates 231 river miles in central California as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

    It also establishes a 400-mile Condor National Scenic Trail to connect wilderness areas within the Los Padres National Forest.

Land Use

    The bill designates 287,500 acres across 12 separate areas along the California coast as new, expanded or potential wilderness areas to be managed by the Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management.

    The Interior Department would be allowed to take any necessary measures in those wilderness areas needed to control fire, insects and diseases, and all grazing activities conducted before the bill's enactment would be permitted to continue. The department also could conduct any management activities necessary to maintain or restore fish and wildlife populations and habitats in the wilderness areas. The bill explicitly states that it does not preclude any military activities or horseback riding on those lands.

    The measure also sets aside more than 41,000 acres of land within the Los Padres National Forest for study for inclusion as a wilderness area — to be known as the Fox Mountain Wilderness Area. Native American tribes would be permitted to use all the bill's central coast wilderness areas for cultural or religious purposes.

    Finally, the measure designates two areas within the Los Padres National Forest as scenic areas: 18,600 acres in Santa Barbara County as the Condor Ridge Scenic Area, and 16,200 acres outside of San Luis Obispo as the Black Mountain Scenic Area.

Rivers

    The bill designates 231 river miles across 23 separate rivers within California's central coastal region as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

    It also expands the Piru Creek Wild and Scenic River by 48.6 miles from its current 7.3 mile designation to 55.9 miles.

Scenic Trail

    The bill creates a 400-mile trail within Los Padres National Forest from Lake Piru to the Bottchers Gap Campground, which would be known as the Condor National Scenic Trail.

    Named after the endangered bird species that lives along the extent of the trail corridor, it seeks to connect the southern and northern portions of the Los Padres National Forest, spanning the entire length of the forest along the coastal mountains of southern and central California.

Southern California

    The San Gabriel Mountains are a mountain range located in northern Los Angeles County and western San Bernardino County, Calif. The range lies in, and is surrounded by, the Angeles National Forest, with the San Andreas Fault as the northern border of the range.

    In 2014, President Barack Obama designated the area as the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument.

    The measure expands the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument by more than 100,000 acres; it establishes a new, separate San Gabriel Recreation Area; it designates more than 30,000 acres of land near along the San Gabriel Mountains as wilderness area; and it adds 45 miles to the National Wild and Scenic River Systems in the area.

San Gabriel Lands

    The measure expands the existing San Gabriel National Monument by adding 109,167 acres of National Forest System land.

    It also adds four parcels of land totaling 30,659 acres as new or expanded wilderness area. Specifically, those parcels include the Condor Peak, San Gabriel, Sheep Mountain and Yerba Buena wildernesses.

    The bill creates a nearly 50,000-acre San Gabriel National Recreation Area to be managed by the Park Service, along with an advisory council. The Interior Department could acquire nonfederal land in the recreation area only through exchange, donation or purchase from a willing seller, and may not use eminent domain to acquire land.

Rivers

    The bill adds four rivers totaling 45.5 river miles to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, including 12.7 miles of the East Fork San Gabriel River and 20.2 miles of the Western Fork San Gabriel River.

    The measure specifies that it may not be construed to affect the use of any water resource facility downstream of the Southern California wild and scenic rivers designated by the bill, and also may not preclude the establishment of new water resource facilities downstream.

Rim of the Valley

    In 2008 Congress enacted the Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act, which required the National Park Service to conduct a special resource study of the Rim of the Valley Corridor — which generally includes the mountains encircling the San Fernando, La Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi and Conejo valleys. The study sought to determine the suitability and feasibility of designating all or a portion of the Rim of the Valley Corridor as a unit of the existing Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which currently encompasses 191,000 acres.

    The Park Service initiated the study in 2010 and transmitted its final report in February 2016. In its report, it recommended more than doubling the size of the existing recreation area to include a very significant portion of the Rim of the Valley study area.

    The measure expands the current Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area to include 154,000 acres that were studied for inclusion within the Rim of the Valley Corridor near Los Angeles, Calif.

    The area to be added includes El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the birthplace of the city and one of the region's significant cultural sights.

    Oil and gas activities on the lands would be prohibited, and private land owners would not be required to participate in any conservation or recreation activities. The measure places no additional restrictions on property owners.

Colorado

    The measure designates almost 600,000 acres of public land in Colorado as wilderness areas, of which 560,000 acres would be designated as new wilderness, 7,000 acres as expanded wilderness, and more than 30,000 as potential wilderness for study.

    Specifically, the bill adds 30 areas as either new or expanded wilderness, including 28,279 acres to create the Books Cliff Wilderness, 25,624 to create the Demaree Canyon Wilderness, and 35,251 acres to create the Beaver Creek Wilderness.

    All valid existing rights on the added lands would be protected, and the state would remain responsible for protecting wildlife and fisheries on those lands.

    The measure provides for continued military activities in and around the lands, including low-level military helicopter operations and high altitude training, and it specifies that the measure may not be construed to affect the use or allocation of any water, water rights or water interests.

    The bill adds no new scenic rivers to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System in Colorado.

Washington State

    The Olympic Peninsula is the large arm of land in western Washington that lies across Puget Sound from Seattle, which contains Olympic National Park including Cape Alava, the westernmost point in the contiguous United States.

    The Park was originally designated by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1906 as a national monument and was redesignated as a national park by Congress in 1938.

    The bill designates as new wilderness within Olympic National Park in Washington State 14 areas that total 126,544 acres, and it designates for study as potential wilderness 5,346 acres within the park.

    It also designates 464.5 river miles across 19 separate rivers in and around Olympic National Park as part of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System.

CBO Cost Estimate

    As of press time, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) had not released a cost estimate for the modified version of the bill expected to be considered.