800,000 Wildland Acres Sought to be Protected

Taken at Sequoia National Park, which has parts included in the bill | Photo by Allie_Caulfield via Flickr

There are two identical bills floating around the U.S Senate and House this month that would protect federally owned land from any development, vehicles, permanent structures, mining or basically anything else that would alter the environment. The land would go under The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Johnson and says defines land as "an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain." Hiking, backpacking, horseback riding, hunting and fishing are allowed, according to the Sacramento Bee.

The land in the bills titled the the Eastern Sierra and Northern San Gabriel Wild Heritage Act and sponsored by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-California) and Representative Buck McKeon (R-Santa Clarita), covers 800,000 acres (that's larger than Rhode Island) in three counties: Inyo, Mono and Los Angeles.

Magic Mountain (not theme park, but nearby) in Santa Clarita (13,709 acres), Pleasant View Ridge (28,424 acres) in the San Gabriel Mountains and Piru Creek (7 acres) in Piru off the 126 highway between Ventura and Santa Clarita are the three LA County representatives in the bill, totally 42,133 acres of coverage. The bills are expected to be voted on next month.