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Quoted from appended article from today's Sacramento Bee:
[A House committee soon will review the new proposal, but pride of authorship resides beyond Capitol Hill. It's a coalition of Californians who put aside their historic antagonisms to negotiate the package, acre by acre. "It's really the way it should be done," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.]
Richard Pombo needs no introduction -- BUT did know Pombo serves on the Advisory Board of the National Wilderness Institute and that NWI has very specific ideas on the way Wilderness should be done?
If Pombo and / or NWI supports a Wilderness bill, what does that say to you about the bill and the compromises built into it?
Learn more http://www.exxonsecrets.org/html/orgfactsheet.php?id=75
Scott
PS... be sure to see the two quotes at the bottom of this page.
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http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/story/14278500p-15087344c.html
Wilderness measure an exercise in compromise
By Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau and Mark Grossi Fresno Bee
Published 12:01 am PDT Saturday, July 15, 2006
WASHINGTON -- A locally crafted, congressionally endorsed plan to
protect more than 40,000 acres north of Yosemite could be a case study
in how a divided Congress handles wilderness.
It's called compromise, and it can be a delicate affair.
The striking new plan will let snowmobile enthusiasts roar around on
more than 10,000 acres near Sonora Pass. Black bears, mountain lions
and wintering bald eagles can remain secluded in the protected
wilderness. Pacific Crest Trail hikers can be comforted knowing
development won't impinge on their High Sierra treks.
A House committee soon will review the new proposal, but pride of
authorship resides beyond Capitol Hill. It's a coalition of
Californians who put aside their historic antagonisms to negotiate the
package, acre by acre.
"It's really the way it should be done," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.
Pombo chairs the House Resources Committee, which will conduct a
hearing on the proposed Sierra Nevada wilderness legislation in the
last week of July. A staunch private property advocate and critic of
the Endangered Species Act, Pombo is more rancher than environmentalist.
Nonetheless, Pombo said the new California wilderness bill is "pretty
close to being able to go forward." Political obstacles remain -- not
least, the congressional clock that's ticking fast this election year.
The underlying deal itself, though, looks durable.
In the town of Bishop, on the Sierra Nevada's eastern side, 73-year-old
Dick Noles considers the wilderness plan a reasonable balance. A hunter
and fisherman who co-chairs Advocates for Access to Public Land, Noles
helped negotiate part of the package.
The deal includes continued snowmobile access to the Leavitt Bowl area
east of Sonora Pass. About 7,500 acres of this is considered to be
prime snowmobile turf. Officials in the Mono County town of Bridgeport
hope the snowmobile access will bring more tourists.
"I think they got a nice place to play," Noles said. "I felt we really
needed to get this land legislated for snowmobiling use, or we might
lose the opportunity later on."
Conservationists, in turn, consider the snowmobile access a price worth
paying. In the proposed wilderness area, glacially scarred granite is
dotted with blue tarns, and the horizon is punctuated by spires and
peaks. Portions of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail pass through.
"The windswept view is almost tundra-like," said Angela Ballard, a
Fairfax resident and editor of the Pacific Crest Trail Association
magazine. "This needs to be kept as a wilderness experience."
The deal includes adding about 640 acres of the Stanislaus National
Forest to the existing Emigrant Wilderness in order to protect the
Pacific Crest Trail. The trail comes close to Sonora Pass, where
environmentalists feared development.
The biggest portion, 39,680 acres, is part of the Humboldt-Toiyabe
National Forest and would be added to the existing Hoover Wilderness.
The proposed wilderness addition is also steeped in cultural history.
The Washoe and Northern Paiute Indians lived during past centuries in the Walker River drainage.
"This addition is the culmination of broad grass-roots support for many
years," said Derek Chernoy of the California Wilderness Heritage
Campaign. "It is exciting that we will be able to preserve the land in
its wild state for generations to come."
The deal also shows how compromise can trump ideological purity when it comes to getting bills passed.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in 2002 introduced a sprawling California
wilderness bill that excited environmental groups but stalled in the
Republican-controlled Congress. Her bill would have extended federal
wilderness protection to 2.5 million acres statewide.
Tellingly, Boxer's colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., did not sign on as co-sponsor of the big bill.
It never received a Senate hearing.
Political dynamics changed when the California Legislature in 2002
redrew congressional district lines. The Mono County communities that
had been represented by Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, came under
the sway of another Republican congressman who thought compromise
possible.
"I said, if you get everybody together, I want them to write the bill,"
said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Palmdale. "They live there. They
should have the most say."
Still, negotiators had to overcome 20 years of inertia. The
snowmobilers did not want to give up the spot they had been using for
decades. Environmentalists were determined to protect all the wildland
in the area.
The Wilderness Society and off-road access lobbyists spent months talking about boundaries before finally settling.
The deal has since won the approval of supervisors in Inyo and Mono
counties. Boxer and Feinstein jointly introduced a version of the bill
and quickly secured a Senate committee hearing. Pombo's only remaining
question last week was whether any other property or recreation groups
retain lingering doubts.
"We're running out of time," McKeon said, "but I'm hopeful we'll get this deal done before we adjourn."
--
About the writer: The Bee's Michael Doyle can be reached at (202) 383-0006 or
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
.
http://www.imba.com/news/action_alerts/02_05/02_23_cawilds.html
Quoted from IMBA Action Alert:
[ Mountain bikers nationwide are urged to ask their U.S
Representative and Congressman Richard Pombo (R-CA), the chairman of
the House Resources Committee, to delay action on the Northern
California Wilderness bill until suitable compromises are reached to
accommodate mountain biking. ]
http://www.headwatersnews.org/edu.whiteclouds0506.html
Quoted from a recent article about CIEDRA:
[This breathtaking country, not far from Ketchum, Idaho, could be
close to federal protection as a 301,500-acre wilderness area known as
the Boulder-White Cloud Mountains. After six years on the drafting
table, Congressman Mike Simpson's (R-ID), Central Idaho Economic
Development and Recreation Act (CIEDRA) is written, fine-tuned and
ready to meet the scrutinizing eyes of Richard Pombo (R-CA), leader of
the House Resources Committee.]
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- Land management 
