Results tagged “wilderness”

In a major victory for environmentalists, the 9th District Court of Appeals today sided with the National Parks Conservation Association in a fight against a landfill, which would be surrounded by Joshua Tree National Park on three sides, meant for garbage from L.A. County brought in by train.

One year ago this Thursday, the Freeway Complex fire broke out. The 30,305-acre fire destroyed 314 homes. Two years ago this past Sunday, the Santiago Fire ignited, eventually burning through 28,517 acres and destroying 14 homes.

President Barack Obama proclaimed September as National Wilderness Month yesterday on the 45th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, which protects pure land from being touched by any hint of development. Even areas within protected National Parks are declared as wilderness to stop government agencies from building roads, hiking paths or visitor centers.

"As Americans, we possess few blessings greater than the vast and varied landscapes that stretch the breadth of our continent," President Barack Obama said today before signing the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act of 2009, which designates 700,000 acres of California land, including portions within Joshua Tree and Sequoia National Parks, as protected Wildnerness.

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.