Red Lodge Clearinghouse

H.R. 2632, from Rep. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), would designate nearly 16,000 acres of land in the northeastern part of New Mexico as wilderness. The Sabinoso Wilderness Area would encompass cliffs and canyons, including the 1,000 foot-deep Canon Largo. The bills allow for continued land inholdings in the wilderness area.

In California, H.R. 3022 from Reps. Jim Costa (D-Calif.) and Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) would create the John Krebs Wilderness in 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. The bill would also add an additional 43,500 acres to an existing wilderness area within the park.

Four other wilderness areas would be formed by Rep. Mary Bono Mack's (R-Calif.), H.R. 3682. In addition to the new areas, it would add land to six existing areas and 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. Thirty-one miles of rivers would also 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 House has now passed six wilderness bills in 2008. Earlier this year, the House approved bills creating wilderness areas in Oregon and West Virginia along with a Senate package establishing the Wild Sky Wilderness area in Washington state.

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