Senate again passes bill to expand wilderness

[babylonsister]

Senate again passes bill to expand wilderness

By MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- For the second time this year, the Senate has passed a long-delayed bill to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness, from a California mountain range to a forest in Virginia.

The 77-20 vote on Thursday sends the bill to the House, where final legislative approval could come as early as next week.

The Senate first approved the measure in January, but the House rejected it last week amid a partisan dispute over gun rights. The gun issue was not raised during Senate debate.

The legislation - a package of nearly 170 separate bills - would confer the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range and Oregon's Mount Hood to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

Land in Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and Zion National Park in Utah also would win designation as wilderness, and more than 1,000 miles of rivers in nearly a dozen states would gain protections. The proposals would expand wilderness designation - which blocks nearly all development - into areas that now are not protected.

Supporters called the legislation among the most important conservation bills debated in Congress in decades.

more...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/C/CONGRESS_WILDERNESS?SITE=CONGRA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

[Hope And Change]

1. K & R!

[TwilightGardener]

2. Excellent.

[closeupready]

3. Terrific!

:)

[natrat]

4. it sucks if you like being in the outdoors cuz suddenly you cant go there

unless you walk ---which means 99.9% of this land is lost to us until the facists come in and log and mine it in a few years ---do any of you actually trust these people to do something right?

[babylonsister]

5. I'd rather have a wilderness than a concrete jungle. And yes,

this IS doing something right.

[leftyclimber]

6. The Wilderness Act of 1964 permits horses/mules/etc and has been interpreted

after the Americans with Disabilities Act to include wheelchairs by all federal land management agencies.

There are plenty of other places you can ride a four-wheeler or whatever it is you want to do. Wilderness is a tiny fraction of the federal land open to recreation in the conterminous United States.

[tkmorris]

7. Are you fucking high?

What good is it to be able to go someplace if when you get there there is a housing development on the spot? Protecting what little natural area we have left is about as basic as it gets, I can't believe anyone would stand in opposition to such an idea.

[ShadesOfGrey]

8. Very good news! K&R