Thursday, January 8, 2009 8:01 PM PST

REGION: New life breathed into wilderness bill

By DAVE DOWNEY - Staff Writer

After political distractions doomed passage of a Riverside County wilderness bill last year, supporters have fresh hope the plan will gain traction in 2009.

U.S. Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Palm Springs, author of the original bill, plans to unveil a new version Friday for the new session of Congress.

And Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., introduced a similar, but much larger, package of legislation in the Senate on Wednesday that combines the Riverside County lands with roadless areas in the Sierra Nevada and several other states. Bingaman is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

The Senate package may move quickly.

Maria Najera, a spokeswoman for Bingaman, said the package is set for a so-called cloture vote Sunday, where backers aim to end debate by getting 60 senators to agree. If successful, she said, an up-or-down vote on the measure would come Monday or Tuesday.

Then debate would shift to the House of Representatives, where an earlier version of the Riverside County bill passed.

Dubbed the California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act, Bono Mack's plan called for laying a blanket of protection over 190,000 acres spread from Temecula to the Salton Sea. It was well on the way to becoming law last year until the ailing economy dominated business in Congress, said Ryan Henson, policy director for the Oakland-based California Wilderness Coalition. Then the 110th session of Congress ended.

"Literally, the clock ran out," Henson said.

Bono Mack and Bingaman are picking up where the old Congress left off. The new Riverside County plan is identical to the old one.

The bill would provide additional protection to the northern slopes of Palomar Mountain along the Riverside-San Diego county line, create a new wilderness near Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and expand protected areas at Joshua Tree National Park.

"They are slices of what natural California is all about," Henson said.

Wilderness designations generally bar development, mining and motor vehicles while allowing hiking, hunting and horseback riding.

Federal lawmakers are proposing to:

-- Add 2,000 acres to the existing 16,000-acre Agua Tibia Wilderness along the north slope of Palomar Mountain, where isolated groves of pine and fir shelter rare Mexican spotted owls.

-- Create a 16,000-acre Beauty Mountain Wilderness east of Temecula wrapped around a 5,548-foot peak, next to the Anza-Borrego park.

-- Create a 7,000-acre Cahuilla Mountain Wilderness near Anza, northeast of Temecula.

-- Create a 22,000-acre South Fork San Jacinto Wilderness near Idyllwild, while expanding existing wilderness areas in the San Jacinto Mountains.

-- Add 78,000 acres of protected areas in Joshua Tree National Park.

The proposal enjoys support from a wide cross-section of the community, including the city of Murrieta.

In a letter last year, Murrieta Councilman Rick Gibbs, who then was the mayor, wrote that the plan would protect natural beauty while preserving recreation opportunities for the region's fast-growing population.

The measure also enjoys the support of avid hikers such as Shannah Zorn of Hemet. She wants to save one of her favorite places to get away from the hustle and bustle of urban life: the San Jacinto Mountains.

"I love the dramatic changes in scenery from the eastern side of the mountains to the western and north-facing slopes," Zorn said.

There's also something farther north for residents of Riverside and San Diego counties, said Sally Miller, a spokeswoman for The Wilderness Society in Mammoth. She noted that the Senate package provides fresh protection for forests of the eastern Sierra Nevada and White Mountains.

Miller contends such areas will become more important rather than less as the state struggles to survive a crippling recession.

"People are going to spend less money flying to exotic places and look for less expensive places to visit closer to home," she said.

See maps of the Riverside County proposal at www.desertmountainwild.org/lands_rivers.html.