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


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June is National Rivers Month, and supporters are calling for greater protections of the Olympic Peninsula's rivers and landscapes.

The Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in Congress would protect more than 126,000 acres as wilderness and designate 19 rivers and their tributaries as wild and scenic.

The legislation has received support from local elected officials, tribes, businesses and conservation groups.

Ashley Nicole Lewis, owner of Bad Ash Fishing on the Olympic peninsula, and a member of the Quinault Nation, explained the value of the designations.

"Protecting these forests, protecting these watersheds are super important culturally," Nicole Lewis emphasized. "Because salmon and steelhead fishing really is the bedrock of my culture as an Indigenous woman, and also as somebody who works in the ecotourism field."

She pointed out rivers in the region are some of the most productive salmon and steelhead waterways in the country.

Nicole Lewis argued safeguarding the landscapes now while they are still in good condition is crucial. She noted the measure will protect fishing, boating and hunting without closing down access to any such opportunities.

"It protects the Olympic Peninsula's ancient forests, free-flowing rivers and salmon streams for the future," Nicole Lewis stressed. "But it also permanently protects some of the last healthy upstream salmon and steelhead habitats left on the peninsula."

Nicole Lewis stated the bill has benefits for the region's endangered orcas as well, which need the salmon from the peninsula's rivers to survive, and believes everyone has a reason to care about it.

"From the point in which a salmon swims up the river, dies, brings nutrients from the ocean into the forest, creates healthy forests, which creates cleaner air," Nicole Lewis outlined. "Every point of this is important and connected to anything that we care about in the Northwest."

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

June is National Rivers Month and a proposal in Congress would protect more of Oregon's rivers.

Currently about 2% of Oregon's 110,000 miles of river are protected under the federal Wild and Scenic River Act. The River Democracy Act would add wild and scenic protections to 4,700 miles.

Kait Sampsel is co-owner of Humble Heron Fly Fishing and Fine Art, which operates on the Rogue River. She said safeguarding more rivers in the state is important for future generations.

"The idea is to be able to catch these things ahead of time," said Sampsel, "put in these protections ahead of time versus caught with our tail between our legs and go, 'Oh, man! There's a huge issue. If we would have seen the trend, we would have been on top of the ball.'"

The River Democracy Act has received pushback from Republicans in Oregon. They say it could hamper timber counties' ability to reduce forest fuels, which increases the risk of fire hazards.

Wild and scenic designation does not impact private property or traditional uses of the land like fishing and hunting.

Sampsel said rivers are a crucial part of the outdoor recreation economy in Oregon, which generates more than $15 billion in consumer spending. She said communities on the Rogue River, 36 miles of which is protected as wild and scenic, get that.

"The main vein, that Rogue River is running right through numerous communities," said Sampsel. "Without the river, those communities would suffer hugely."

The Oregon waterways included in the River Democracy Act were chosen from more than 15,000 suggestions sent to the office of Sen. Ron Wyden - D-OR.

Sampsel says there's an easy - and fun - way to help folks understand their importance.

"Start by going out and playing at your local river and building a connection," said Sampsel. "And that start right there - I hope that you'll understand why we're needing to protect these rivers."

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

Montana is considering a purchase of land in the central part of the state that could open up access to more than 100,000 acres of public land.

Educational flights are taking place starting today to tour the Big Snowy Mountains, which could see more visitors with the purchase of a ranch in the southern foothills.

The 5,600-acre ranch was gifted to Shodair Children's Hospital when its owner died. Craig Aasved is CEO of the hospital.

"We knew we would likely not hold onto that property," said Aasved. "But what was most important to us is selling that property but selling it where it would be to a buyer that would make it public for citizens of Montana."

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks has concluded an environmental assessment of the purchase, which would be known as the Big Snowy Mountains Wildlife Management Area, and concluded it wouldn't have any negative impacts.

Public commenters opposed to the proposal raised concerns about noise, increased risk of fire because of human use in the area and loss of grazing.

Glenn Ellison is a retired wildlife biologist and Montana Wildlife Federation board member. He said the Big Snowy Mountains public lands are landlocked, so to speak, by private lands surrounding it, providing few access points for hunters and recreationists.

"This is a really big deal for the public," said Ellison. "Not only is the land itself valuable wildlife habitat and recreational land, but it opens up a vast area beyond that that was heretofore, for all practical sense, inaccessible for the public."

The elk population in the area is 900% above the targeted level, according to Fish, Wildlife and Parks. State Sen. Jeff Welborn - R-Dillon - said those elk impact private lands and opening access to hunters could benefit those land owners.

"If that helps harvest animals in that area to get more to an objective level, to me that looks like a win-win for everybody," said Welborn, "both the public-land hunter and the private-land owner."

To pay, in part, for the acquisition, Fish, Wildlife and Parks has proposed using state funding from Habitat Montana, a program that gets some of its funding from recreational marijuana sales.