Plenty Magazine
Published June, 2006

Natural treasures

By Kate Siber

When Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, more than 20 California county supervisors, wineries, ranches, timber companies, Native American tribes, and church groups support a wilderness bill, you'd imagine Capitol Hill would take notice. In the case of the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, also known as the North Coast Wilderness Bill, that's exactly what happened. With the help of numerous public meetings and input from citizens, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Representative Mike Thompson (D-CA) painstakingly adjusted boundaries and drafted legislation agreeable to diverse Californians. As of press time, the bill had passed the Senate and was awaiting a House vote. It will potentially designate 14 different areas of Northern California's public lands--more than 300,000 acres--as wilderness, including parts of the Mendocino and Six River National Forest and the Black Butte River. In addition to dozens of species of wildflowers, animals like the Chinook salmon, bald eagle, Roosevelt elk, and goshawk find havens in these rugged landscapes. Cedar Roughs in Napa County is home to one of the last wild black bear populations in the state and the biggest grove of rare Sergeant cypress in the world. In King Range, you'll find the Lost Coast, which is the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the United States outside Alaska. The second largest bald eagle population in California spends the winter in the proposed 870-acre Cache Creek Wilderness.

GO THERE
During the 21-mile, two-day raft ride on Cache Creek, both the Class III rapids and the scenery-bald eagles, elk, and steep volcanic canyon walls--will vie for your attention. You can also easily spend four days exploring the sand, pebble and boulder beaches of Lost Coast Trail in the proposed King Range Wilderness; there are a total of 25 rough-hewn miles of highway-free shoreline. For a day trip try the four-mile Bug Creek Trail in the proposed Mad River Buttes Wilderness, where views of the Pacific and the Trinity Alps await.

DETAILS AND RESOURCES
To support the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, contact the California Wild Heritage Campaign (916-442-3 1 55, californiawild. org) . For information on r ecreation in the proposed wildern ess areas, get in touch with the Mendocino National Forest (530-934-3316, fs.fed.us/rS/mendocino), Six Rivers National Forest (707-442-1721. fs.fed.WrSlsixrNers), Ukiah field office of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) (707-468-4000, bim.gov/ca/ukiah), or the Arcata field o ffice of the BLM (707-825-2300, bim.govica/arcata). Cache Canyon River Trips offers two-day rafting excu rsions ($100-$l 50 per person, $ 30-796-309 1, cachecanyon.com).

© Copyright 2006 Plenty Magazine