skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

U.S. strikes did not destroy Iran nuclear program, says Pentagon assessment; Dems join GOP to kill vote impeaching Trump over Iran strikes; Health gaps persist for American Indian, Alaska Native Coloradans; Alternative payment models better for WA patients, providers; New CT law ends election agency's independence.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Some members of Congress are upset about lack of transparency on Iran policy, but House Speaker questions constitutionality of War Powers Resolution, and Fed Chair explains why interest rates aren't being cut.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Giant data centers powering artificial intelligence want cheap rural land but some communities are pushing back, Hurricane Helene mobilized a North Carolina town in unexpected ways, and Cherokee potters make ceramics that honor multiple generations.

At 50 Years, Wilderness Act Working Well for California

play audio
Play

Wednesday, September 3, 2014   

LOS ANGELES – With the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, wilderness advocates are reflecting on the legislation that created the National Wilderness Preservation System – along with the challenges of maintaining it amid renewed calls for resource extraction and passing new wilderness bills in a gridlocked Congress.

Ryan Henson, senior policy director at the California Wilderness Coalition, says the system of protection and management established by the Wilderness Act continues to function well in California.

"When it passed in 1964, it protected several wilderness areas outright, and then it also established a system that was used in the years since to protect many other places," he says. "Today we have about 14 million acres of wilderness in California."

Almost all of California's 149 wilderness areas are on federal public land managed either by the U.S. Forest Service or the Bureau of Land Management.

Henson warns that weakening or undoing the Wilderness Act would throw millions of acres of pristine public land into jeopardy by making them vulnerable to resource extraction or destructive recreation.

"It wasn't too many months ago that a congressman in California proposed Yosemite National Park and several wilderness areas be opened to logging," Henson says. "That was just earlier this year."

He adds that it's easy to forget some high-value recreation areas protected by the Wilderness Act once were slated for development.

"There were ski resorts, there were highways, big dams, huge logging projects, mining projects," he says. "All sorts of things that could've spoiled that wild country that today, is available in its wild condition for everyone to go out and enjoy."

Wilderness can only be designated by Congress – and despite resistance to creating new wilderness among some lawmakers, Daniel Rossman, regional associate at the Los Angeles office of The Wilderness Society, says there is legislation ready to go should the political climate change.

"We should take the long view," says Rossman. "Every president since the act of '64 has passed wilderness-protection bills. This current Congress has been a very tough one, but there are places waiting to be protected – the rugged San Gabriel Mountains just outside of Los Angeles to the majestic California desert, to the California coast."

Additional proposals include a bill to expand protection to California condor habitat along the Central Coast and wilderness protection for the Carizzo Plain.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Arkansas' ballot initiative process allows citizens to propose statutes or constitutional amendments and collect signatures to place the proposals on a ballot. League members say bills passed by lawmakers have taken those rights away. (edbockstock/Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

Members of the League of Women Voters-Arkansas are collecting signatures to add a constitutional amendment to the November 2026 ballot. The …


Social Issues

play sound

Ohio union and clean energy leaders are urging their U.S. Senators to reject a sweeping reconciliation bill they said would devastate families and …

Social Issues

play sound

American Indian and Alaska Native communities in Colorado continue to face significant gaps in health care access, quality and outcomes, according to …


Environment

play sound

Minnesotans are cooling off after last weekend's extreme heat but communities bearing the brunt of environmental injustice said there will be more cli…

The cost of care for dementia patients varies widely by state. At $55,000 per year, care for patients in California is slightly more expensive than the national average.(Ocskay Bence/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

In California, families shoulder most of the burden of dementia care, according to a new study. Researchers from the University of Washington found …

Social Issues

play sound

Ho-Chunk has kicked off its summer internship program in Nebraska after sifting through 600 applicants. It is opening pathways to higher education …

Social Issues

play sound

Six Michigan projects have been awarded funding through AARP's largest-ever Community Challenge grant, aimed at making communities more livable…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021