Congressman Pombo is right, this is how it should be done; involving every stakeholder in the decision and taking the time to do it right.
An excerpt.
Wilderness measure an exercise in compromise
By Michael Doyle -- Bee Washington Bureau and Mark Grossi Fresno BeePublished 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."
