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.


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MONTICELLO, Utah -- The movement to restore the Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah gets a major boost this weekend when a hand-carved symbolic totem pole makes a stop Saturday on its tour from the west coast to Washington, D.C.

The Red Road to D.C. Totem Pole Journey is designed to highlight sacred sites across the U.S. that are at risk.

Angelo Baca, cultural resources coordinator for the nonprofit Utah Diné Bikéyah, a group working to restore and protect the national monument, explained that tribal communities with ancestral ties to Bears Ears are asking the Biden Administration to restore a significant portion of the area that was removed in 2017.

"We will want the full restoration and possible extension of the Bears Ears landscape, because it's the right thing to do," Baca contended. "Historically, socially, culturally and environmentally, a restoration of justice."

Shortly after taking office, then-President Donald Trump reduced the size of Bears Ears by 85% and neighboring Grand Staircase-Escalante by half. Former President Barack Obama ordered protected status for the areas in 2016.

Baca noted the totem pole's stop at Bears Ears is symbolic of tribal nations supporting each other.

"We've always pushed for the original proposal, the 1.9 million acres that need protection," Baca pointed out. "We've maintained the reduction by the previous administration was not done in good faith and on shaky legal ground."

The totem pole was hand-carved by Jewell James, a member of the Lummi Nation in Washington state, in honor of Native American Deb Haaland's being appointed Secretary of the Interior.

Following its 10-stop tour, the totem pole will be featured in the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian.

"The significance of the totem pole stopping in Bears Ears is the solidarity and expression of support from many tribes across the nation for protecting sacred land," Baca remarked. "This is just a continuation of that respectful relationship that's already been established."

A blessing ceremony for the totem pole is set for 8:00 a.m. Mountain Time at the Bears Ears Monument. For those who cannot attend, the event will be livestreamed on Facebook.

Support for this reporting was provided by The Pew Charitable Trusts.

SEARCHLIGHT, Nev. -- The push for a new national monument about 60 miles south of Las Vegas has taken on added urgency, in the face of a new wind-farm proposal in the area.

The monument would be called Avi Kwa Ame, which is the Mojave Tribe's term for Spirit Mountain. The 380,000-acre monument would connect the Mojave National Preserve on the California-Nevada border with the Colorado River plateau.

Neal Desai, senior program director for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the landscape is holy ground for many Native Americans.

"This area is sacred to a dozen tribes," Desai explained. "It's tied to the creation story. It is the area where the universe started for the Yuman tribes along the river."

Opponents noted the area already has some federal protections. However, a national monument designation would preclude any future commercial development.

In recent weeks, town officials in Searchlight and Boulder City have endorsed the monument proposal.

In 2018, the Bureau of Land Management rejected a bid by a Swedish company to build the huge Crescent Peak wind farm.

Desai added he hopes the agency will also put a stop to the company's latest plans.

"That company is now proposing a 9,000-acre project in the same area," Desai noted. "It's just a new threat, and it's another reason why we need to get this monument established right away."

Advocates for the monument believe their cause is gaining momentum now that a Native American leader, Deb Haaland, has become U.S. Interior Secretary. In addition, the monument would help President Joe Biden reach his stated goal of protecting 30% of the country's public lands by 2030.

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- North Central Pennsylvania will soon have 70 miles of new roads open to all-terrain vehicles, connecting the existing Potter and Tioga trails.

The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) said the pilot program will launch on July 16 and run through Sep. 26. It's opening state forest roads, snowmobile trails, and PennDOT roads previously not designated for all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), in response to growing demand in the state for riding opportunities.

Wesley Robinson, press secretary for the DCNR, said the pilot will make longer ATV rides more accessible.

"There are a lot of people who have ATVs and might have to travel several hours to use them legally," Robinson explained. "That was a big reason behind this, because there's just a high level of interest in folks wanting to ride ATVs in the state."

The DCNR acknowledged environmental and noise concerns accompany the use of ATVs. Robinson pointed out during the pilot, they will conduct environmental monitoring to gauge its impact.

Sarah Corcoran, conservation program manager for the Sierra Club Pennsylvania chapter, said she hopes the agency examines the effects of illegal riding that could occur.

"It's going to be tough for folks to not be on those trails after the pilot's over," Corcoran cautioned. "I want to know what their enforcement practices are going to be during the pilot program, to make sure that folks are only riding where they're allowed to be riding."

She added the public comment period should open lines of communication to ensure concerns are addressed.

Henry Sorgen, president of the 1,500-member Central Mountains ATV Association in Clinton County, thinks improving ATV access can help support the local economy.

"That's what the pilot program is to prove to PennDOT, to DCNR, to Harrisburg," Sorgen argued. "That we can do this and bring in tourism and boost the sales of gas and food, and hotel and campground stays, in our region."

The pilot will reconvene in May 2022 for a second round, and will include a connector to the Tiadaghton State Forest and the Haneyville ATV Trail System in Lycoming and Clinton counties.