SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Three bills that would protect 1 million acres of public land in California get votes today in Congress. The House Committee on Natural Resources is expected to approve all three, setting them up for a full House vote.
Amanda Barragar from Trinity County, an environmental advocate with the group Safe Alternatives for our Forest Environment, said the Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation and Working Forests Act can help protect northern California from catastrophic wildfires.
"This bill promotes forest restoration and fuels reduction work," she said, "especially along roads, where most fires start, and near communities."
Another bill, the Central Coast Heritage Protection Act, would extend wilderness protections to almost 250,000 acres, create two scenic areas and designate 159 miles of Wild and Scenic rivers. The third bill primarily would expand San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in the foothills near Los Angeles.
Opponents say that new designations would be unnecessary impediments to commercial development.
Josh Andujo of the group Nature For All is a member of the Gabrielino Tongva Tribe, which supports extra protections for their ancestral homeland.
"Our territory stretched from Malibu into Newport Beach, the Channel Islands into San Bernardino," Andujo said. "For us, we still hold our ceremonies up there. My family holds a ceremony that goes back 250 years, with our water ceremony."
Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Vitali Mostovoj said he's concerned about the high suicide rate among veterans and first responders. He said he thinks access to more pristine public lands can help them cope.
"Getting people out in nature is very important," he said. "Going just to a campground by itself is not enough; you need to be out in the open, where you're alone, to be with nature as a whole. That is why our wilderness areas are so important to preserve."
The bills have strong bipartisan support and haven't attracted any organized opposition, although they do have some detractors among lawmakers who believe the government should privatize more public land.
Details of the Central Coast bill are online here, the Northwest California bill is here, and the San Gabriel bill is here.
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Oregon is home to a plethora of rivers, but those waterways are not always accessible to every community.
A new video series highlights how important these places are for people of color, and how a bill now in Congress could protect more landscapes.
The organization "Love is King" released the videos, which feature diverse voices talking about the personal significance of rivers to them.
Lisa Collins, assistant professor of educational leadership at Lewis and Clark College, was among them, and thinks protecting rivers in Oregon is critical.
"Being able to have water sources that we can go to be in, be near, is vital to not only our personal livelihood, but our community well-being," Collins asserted.
Collins argued the River Democracy Act, introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., is a key piece of legislation. The bill would protect more than 4,000 miles of waterway in the state, and the rivers were selected by Oregonians.
Brian Chou, an outdoor industry consultant in Portland, was also part of the video series. He loves fishing Oregon's rivers with his daughter, and said it isn't just about catching a fish. In the stillness of the river, he is also fishing for perspective.
"It's a priceless resource," Chou explained. "I find that people of all walks -- regardless of what story that you're in, what chapter you're in your life -- anybody can come to a river and the river has no judgment. It is a place of purity and peace."
Jocelyn Rice, designer and founder of Black Earth United, is seen paddleboarding the Tualatin River in the video series, and said she enjoys the solace of rivers.
"It's a nice escape, even within the city," Rice noted. "Which is something I also love about living here and was happy to showcase, is that we have places that you can take a bus to, or you could drive, but you can access our waterways within city limits. And that's something that's such a gift."
There are only a few weeks left for Congress to pass the River Democracy Act this session.
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Correction: The PUBLIC Lands Act is separate from the America Outdoor Recreation Act. (November 24, 2022 10:30am MST)
California is number one in the country for dollars spent on camping, hiking, climbing, and biking, according to the latest federal data.
The
most recent report from the Bureau of Economic Analysis also names boating and RV trips as the state's most lucrative outdoor sector.
Katie Hawkins, California program manager for the nonprofit Outdoor Alliance, said outdoor recreation added $862 billion to the national economy in 2021.
"Outdoor recreation is 1.6% of the state's GDP," Hawkins reported. "It employs around 517,000 people, and accounts for $54 billion in spending."
Advocates are asking Congress to pass
America's Outdoor Recreation Act, and the
PUBLIC Lands Act. The latter would add wilderness protection to more than 600,000 acres of land and protect more than 580 miles of rivers in the Northwest part of the state, the central coast, and in Southern California.
Opponents say current protections are sufficient and warn additional regulations could stifle economic activity in mining, logging, and oil and gas.
Hawkins countered the bills would help California reach its goal of protecting 30% of the land and water by the year 2030, which would help with the fight against global warming and sea level rise, because undisturbed land sequesters carbon.
"Here in California, we have seen firsthand the profound effects of climate change with the increasingly severe wildfire seasons, drought, and heat waves," Hawkins observed.
Conservation groups are pressing lawmakers to bring the bills up for a vote during the lame-duck session, before the end of the year.
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Outdoor recreation continues to contribute to Washington state's economy in a big way.
That's according to new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis, which finds the industry added $12.3 billion to the state's economy and supported more than 114,000 jobs in 2021.
Ashley Nichole Lewis is the owner of Bad Ash Fishing on the Olympic Peninsula. She said Washington state is a destination for people from across the country.
"It's easy to think, 'Oh, it's just me,'" said Lewis. "But there are so many people that are loving these places that it really adds up, and this economic impact report, wow, really showed us the significance of that."
Lewis said people contribute to the economy in a number of ways, such as staying at hotels, eating at local restaurants and stopping at gear shops.
And it's not just Washington. The Bureau of Economic Analysis finds outdoor recreation, including job earnings, added more than $860 billion to the U.S. economy.
Lewis said these economic numbers underscore the importance of protecting more landscapes in Washington state.
The Wild Olympics bill in Congress would add more than 126,000 acres of wilderness and 19 new Wild and Scenic Rivers and tributaries to the Olympic Peninsula.
Lewis said she is urging Washington Democratic U.S. Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell to do everything they can to pass this bill by the end of the year.
"By actually protecting these places, preserving them, keeping them in the condition that they are," said Lewis, "we end up protecting our beloved places that we can go and fish, but we also contribute to the economy in a more meaningful way."
Lewis is a member of the Quinault Tribe and said part of the tribe's identity on the peninsula is connected to salmon. To preserve the fish, protections are key.
She also said there are other perks to going outside.
"It's just good for us as humans," said Lewis. "It's good for our mental health. It's good for our physical health. It's good to socialize with other people that are doing the same thing, and that really contributes to our overall happiness. There's so many benefits that we get as individuals from spending time in the outdoors."
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