California's Closer to Gaining 700,000 Acres of Protected Land

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

Three wildlife bills, passed yesterday in a rare Sunday session of the Senate, paved the way to give California more than 700,000 acres of protected land. "It would designate as wilderness -- the government's highest protection -- about 190,000 acres in Riverside County, including parts of Joshua Tree National Park; about 450,000 acres in the Eastern Sierra and San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles; and about 90,000 acres in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Parks, including John Krebs Wilderness," reported the LA Times.

The land would go under The Wilderness Act, signed into law by President Johnson and 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.

It's expected to pass when it will next go to the full Senate this week and then on to the House.