In the News

San Diego Union-Tribune
September 28, 2007

Wilderness protection proposed for 300 square miles in SoCal

A bill introduced in Congress Thursday would grant federal wilderness protection to nearly 300 square miles of Riverside County deserts, mountains and forests, including 31 miles of scenic rivers.

The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act would expand some existing preserves and add new ones in order to permanently protect more than a dozen areas east of Los Angeles from development.

The bill was introduced by Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer and Republican Rep.

Mary Bono. It would grant wilderness status to 151,531 acres of land, including an additional 40,000 acres in Joshua Tree National Monument.

Another 41,100 acres in Joshua Tree would be designated as "potential wilderness" until the National Park Service settles property claims, according to a joint statement from Boxer and Bono.

The area includes deserts, dunes, chaparral-covered brushlands, pine and fir groves, soaring peaks and rugged rock formations. It is home to several threatened species, including bighorn sheep, bald eagles and desert tortoises.

The proposal was praised by conservationists, local lawmakers and business groups.

"Some of the areas protected in this legislation contain plants and other species at the far southern end of their range, and even some that exist nowhere else on earth," Mike Hamilton, director of the University of California, Riverside, James Reserve, said in a statement.

The bill would protect hiking, hunting and horseback-riding trails in the area.

It also would designate 31 miles of four California Rivers as "wild and scenic": the North Fork San Jacinto River, Fuller Mill Creek, Palm Canyon Creek, and Bautista Creek.