Wilderness bills, including Huffman’s, introduced and combined

“It will not expand federal land, limit hunting or fishing, close any legally open roads or trails to vehicles, or affect access to or the use of private property,” the release says.

The proposal went through several public meetings within Trinity County, and before the Board of Supervisors, often to mixed and sometimes less-than-enthusiatic reviews.

Title 1 would create a 730,000-acre Restoration Area in the South Fork Trinity River, Mad River and North Fork Eel watersheds, authorized restoration of old growth redwoods, restores public lands and authorizes the building of visitor centers.

Title 2 designates the Horse Mountain Special Management area, looks at the possibility of a recreational Trinity Lake trail, authorizes the study for the Bigfoot National Recreation Trail and directs a trail study of biking and other opportunities in Trinity, Humboldt and Del Norte counties.

Title 3 expands 10 existing wilderness areas and establishes eight new ones, but according to the release, will not impact timber harvests.

“The proposed wilderness and potential wilderness represent just 2.5 percent of land currently open and tentatively suitable for logging in Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, and Trinity counties. Wilderness designation only applies to federal lands,” the release said.

It will also designate 379 miles of new Wild & Scenic rivers and mandates federal agencies to create management plans for 101 miles of existing Wild & Scenic rivers only on public lands. It will also designate 379 miles of new Wild & Scenic rivers.

“By designating federal lands as ‘Wilderness’ and rivers as ‘Wild and Scenic,’ this title provides the strongest levels of federal protection to old-growth forests and endangered salmon and steelhead river habitat in this region,” the release stated.

The full bill can be read at www.congress.gov/bill/ 117th-congress/house-bill/878/text.

Western states combined

However, it may be confusing to note that H.R. 803, Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act will be considered by a different committee, but includes the above bill and seven more.

According to the Committee on Rules’ website, rules.house.gov H.R. 878 is one of eight other bills to be soon considered together as H.R. 803, currently titled the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2021.

The combined bills include the Colorado Wilderness Act of 2021, the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act, the San Gabriel Mountains, Foothills and Rivers Protection Act, the Rim of the Valley Corridor Preservation Act, the Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy Act, and the Grand Canyon Protection Act.  

According to govtrack.us H.R. 803 is in the first stage of the legislative process and house majority leaders say it may be considered this week by the House Committee on Rules.

The full text can be found at docs.house.gov under bills to be considered, then HR803, then Rules Committee Print 117-2.