At last! Congress finally found a way to pass the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 without larding it up with controversial items – such as allowing people to carry loaded, concealed weapons in national parks.
The Senate passed this popular bill again last week on a 77-to-20 vote. The hang-up was in the House, where Reps. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and Rob Bishop, R-Utah, still tried to amend the bill to allow people to carry loaded, concealed weapons in national parks. Fortunately, they failed. The House passed a clean bill on Wednesday, 285 to 140.
This is a major victory for California. It includes:
• The San Joaquin River Restoration settlement, brokered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa. This resolves decades of litigation and will provide water-supply certainty to farmers and restore annual salmon runs.
• New projects to increase water supply and flood protection in the Central Valley.
• The Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act, by Sen. Barbara Boxer and Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita, to permanently protect 470,000 acres of wilderness and 73 miles of wild and scenic rivers.
• The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act, by Boxer and Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, which will protect more than 190,000 acres as wilderness and 31 miles of wild and scenic river in Riverside County.
• The Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park Wilderness Act, sponsored by Boxer and Rep. Jim Costa, D-Fresno, to designate 77,000 acres of wilderness.
• Creation of a National Landscape Conservation System, protecting large landscapes, such as the North Fork of the American River.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had a major embarrassment on March 11, when this popular bipartisan bill, which had been expected to pass easily, lost by two votes. This time, House leaders rounded up more than enough votes to establish this generation's public lands legacy for the future.
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