In the News
Idyllwild Town Crier
By J.P. Crumrine
October 4, 2007
Bono bill for wild areas on the Hill
On Thursday, Sept. 27, Congresswoman Mary Bono and Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced legislation to designate thousands of acres as wilderness and miles of rivers as wild and scenic, all in Riverside County.
The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act, or H.R. 3682, has been anticipated for months. Bono’s staff has been working with many local groups to craft a bill that satisfies the needs for greater protection of some areas while ensuring other interests are protected and not excluded.
Wilderness and wild and scenic rivers designations are proposed for areas on the Hill and near to Idyllwild. The two new wilderness areas are the South Fork of the San Jacinto River and Cahuilla Mountain. Together, about 29,000 acres will be designated wilderness. This is in addition to the existing San Jacinto and Santa Rosa wilderness areas, which total nearly 80,000 acres.
“I think it is great,” proclaimed Geary Hund, ecologist and Idyllwild resident. “The South Fork has beautiful river canyons that rise into big cone Douglas fir, the only Douglas fir in the area.”
Parts of the North Fork of the San Jacinto River and Fuller Mill Creek would be designated wild and scenic, as well as Bautista Creek in Anza. All of these lands lie in the San Bernardino National Forest.
Two local groups advised of the pending proposals were the Idyllwild Chamber of Commerce and the Mountain Communities Fire Safe Council (FSC). The Chamber endorsed the proposal and agrees with Hund that the Hill economy depends upon the local ecosystem to attract visitors and new residents.
“I do expect the wilderness bill to complement the concept of Idyllwild as a peaceful place and a peaceful landscape — and to improve business in the long run,” Chamber President Geoffrey Caine said. “Wilderness areas seem to both preserve the ecosystem while boosting tourism and property prices.”
People come to experience the unique high mountain wilderness opportunity not available between here and the Pacific Ocean. Idyllwild and its environs are only two hours from millions of Southern Californians.
The FSC expressed some reservations about offering unconstrained support for the bill. In the FSC opinion, some language was needed to ensure that the wilderness values. and wildland fire protection and prevention could be within the same boundaries.
The bill does provide for using prevention techniques such as prescribed burning, priority treatments and fuels reduction where needed in and abutting the wilderness areas. It also clarifies that wilderness designation does not change the area’s priority for fire or fuels management funds.
FSC 1st Vice President Ron Perry and Director, Blair Ceniceros both expressed support for the bill because of the inclusion of such language.
But FSC Second Vice President Larry Kueneman still questions the need for wilderness designation and remains skeptical of the ability to implement treatment projects. However, he did opine that “the current bill is indeed more treatment friendly.”
“The issue of fire management is huge, but I think all the possible problems have been adequately addressed,” noted Caine. “It will still be possible to fight fires very aggressively.”
The addition of the fire language exemplifies the reason Bono took time introducing the bill. She and Boxer wanted local groups to identify problems and resolve them before the legislative process begins.
“It’s good language. They found a way to meet the concerns of local community,” Hund observed. “Designating wilderness and ensuring ways to fight fire and do pre-suppression work together. People sat down and worked it out locally. I feel good.”