Congressional Committee Makes Controversial Changes To NV Wilderness Bills
Monday, February 3, 2014
RENO, Nev. – An advocacy group is calling on Congress to remove language added to proposed legislation that would help protect thousands of acres of Northern Nevada wilderness.
Paul Spitler, director of Wilderness Campaigns at The Wilderness Society, says the House Committee on Natural Resources approved the bills, but also added amendments that could harm efforts to fully protect the Pine Forest Range and Wovoka Wilderness.
He says the changes could allow some logging and also limit protections for lands near the wilderness areas.
"What these provisions have done is taken clean bills that have broad public support, bipartisan support in Nevada, and turned them into a little shop of horrors that could do great harm on the ground," he stresses.
Spitler says the bills are the Pine Forest Range Recreation Enhancement Act and the Lyon County Economic Development and Conservation Act, which would protect the Wovoka Wilderness.
He says the bills are now headed for a full House vote and then move on for Senate consideration.
Spitler says his group is calling on Congress to restore the bills to their original intent.
"We are urging the House to strip these provisions from these bills, and send the bills over to the Senate as clean bills without any of these poison pill amendments," he says.
Spitler adds if the House approves the bills without removing the amendments, The Wilderness Society will lobby the Senate to do it.
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