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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 21, 2006
Contact:
Paul Hughes, executive director: (415) 974-4201; paul@forestsforever.org
Marc Lecard, communications manager: (415) 974-4202; marc@forestsforever.org
Northern
California Coastal Heritage Act clears committee
Thompson bill would preserve vast tracts of priceless wilderness
A bill that would extend wilderness protection to more than 275,000
acres of federal lands in Northern California recently cleared the
Resources Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. It could
come up for a vote on the floor of the House as early as next week.
The Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Act (H.R. 233) is
sponsored by Rep. Mike Thompson (D-CA). Sens. Barbara Boxer (D-CA)
and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) introduced a companion bill, S. 128,
in the Senate, where it was passed unanimously on July 26, 2005.
“California’s wild lands are continually threatened
by logging, mining, real estate development and– in recent
years– by an administration in Washington hostile to environmental
protections of virtually any kind,” said Paul Hughes, executive
director of Forests Forever.
“That is why it is so important that we have a bill like Rep.
Thompson’s that will afford the comprehensive protection of
wilderness to some of the state’s most precious landscapes.”
The measure would preserve significant parcels of land in the north
state, including the King Range on the Lost Coast, the Cedar Roughs
wilderness, the Cache Creek area, and an expansion of the Yolla
Bolly-Middle Eel Wilderness. The Black Butte River would be designated
as a wild and scenic river.
As part of a compromise, some 25,000 acres of federal land in Del
Norte and Humboldt counties, most of it in Six Rivers National Forest,
has been excluded from the Thompson bill. H.R. 233 also added 79,000
acres of Bureau of Land Management land in Mendocino County for
use by off-road vehicles and mountain bikes. These changes were
made to allay concerns expressed by Del Norte and Humboldt county
officials over the amount of wilderness proposed there, and to address
the complaints of off-road vehicle and mountain bike groups over
losing access to trails on wilderness lands.
The act was originally part of Boxer’s California Wild Heritage
bill, which would protect some 2.5 million acres of wilderness and
22 wild and scenic rivers. Another part of this legislation was
passed in 2002, giving wilderness protection to more than 57,000
acres of federal forests in Monterey and San Benito counties, including
land added to the Ventana Wilderness near Big Sur.
“The forests and rivers that would be protected by the Thompson
bill are home to bears, eagles, elk, northern spotted owls, California
brown pelicans, steelhead and salmon,” Hughes said “They
provide clean drinking water, and afford the irreplaceable experience
of a landscape unaltered by human beings. By giving these lands
wilderness protection, we will ensure that our children can experience
wild California.”
If passed by the House, the bill would go to the Senate and be voted
on before the end of the session in October.
“Forests Forever would like to thank Rep. Thompson and senators
Boxer and Feinstein for introducing this legislation and pushing
it forward,” Hughes said.
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