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Reporting from Washington - In the largest expansion of wilderness protection in 15 years, Congress today sent President Obama legislation that would conserve a wide swath of the West, including stretches of California from the desert to the Sierra.

The lands bill, which passed the House 285 to 140, is expected to be signed by the president this year. It would give the highest level of federal protection to more than 2 million acres in nine states -- prohibiting new roads, the use of motorized or mechanized vehicles, most commercial activities, logging, new structures, new mining claims and new grazing. That is almost as much land as was designated for protection during George W.
Bush's entire presidency.

In California*, *which currently has 14 million acres of wilderness (second only to Alaska, which has more than 57 million acres), the bill would protect 700,000-plus acres. The measure also would authorize $88 million to fund restoration efforts on the San Joaquin River and provide $61 million toward cleanup of polluted groundwater in the San Gabriel Valley area.

The legislation, which cleared the Senate last week, is an amalgam of about 160 bills. They call for things such as designating President Clinton's boyhood home in Hope, Ark., a national historic site, increasing protection of Oregon's Mount Hood, and creating a commission to plan for the 450th anniversary of the founding of St. Augustine, Fla.

Rep. Nick Rahall (D-W.Va.), chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said at a Capitol news conference after the vote that the bill is the "most important piece of conservation legislation Congress has considered in many years."

California land that would be designated as wilderness includes about 40,000 acres in the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County. The bill would create the Magic Mountain Wilderness -- named after a mountain northeast of Santa Clarita, not the Six Flags amusement park -- and the Pleasant View Ridge Wilderness, west of Angeles Crest Highway.

Also designated as wilderness would be about 428,000 acres in the Eastern Sierra, about 147,000 acres in Riverside County -- including parts of Joshua Tree National Park -- and about 85,000 acres in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park.

The legislation also would strengthen protections of scenic rivers, including eight in California that stretch from the upper Owens River in the eastern Sierra to Piru Creek in Los Angeles County. The bill also would add about 8,400 acres to the 272,000-acre Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument near Palm Springs, and order a study on whether the World War II Japanese American internment camp at Tule Lake should be added to the national park system.

"We're ecstatic," said Sam Goldman, California wilderness coordinator at the Wilderness Society.

The bill brought together members of opposing parties who were eager to trumpet their conservation efforts and water projects.

Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), a conservative who worked with liberal Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) to push for the wilderness designation in the Eastern Sierra and San Gabriel Mountains, alluded to the unusual position he finds himself in.

"We have some people who used to be my friends who are not happy with me, and we have some people who used to hate me who now think I'm great," he said. Displaying pictures of mountains and rivers in his district, he added, "Places like this are treasures that we should try to preserve."

But it drew opposition from a number of congressional Republicans and business and property-rights groups, who attacked it as a land grab that would close off public land to energy production.

"Are our memories so short that we have forgotten the energy crisis of just last summer?" said Rep. Doc Hastings of Washington, the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee.

The San Joaquin River settlement, hailed as a landmark by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), divided Central Valley Republicans.

Contending the settlement would hurt farmers, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Tulare) sarcastically suggested, "If this Congress isn't capable of delivering water to people, perhaps we can ask the United Nations for help. Maybe they would be willing to deliver water, distribute humanitarian aid and rebuild the San Joaquin Valley."

Rep. George Radanovich (R-Mariposa), however, said the settlement would resolve a years-long legal battle that threatened the water supply for farmers and "gives the agricultural community some control over their water future."

The new wilderness designations will be the latest additions to the 107-million acre National Wilderness Preservation System, created when President Johnson signed the Wilderness Act in 1964.

The measure's passage today has emboldened environmentalists to push for even more wilderness designation.

Boxer is working to protect another 1.4 million acres of wilderness in California, including areas in the Angeles, Klamath, Lassen and Los Padres national forests.

Source:http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-lands26-2009mar26,0,2710097.story