A new bill has been proposed that will set aside over two million acres of land in nine states to be protected as wilderness. The various states’ interests were combined into a single bill in order to better thwart opposition within individual states such as the argument by conservatives that property values would suffer and drilling rights would be compromised if new wilderness lands were set aside.
California will see roughly 750,000 acres – the size of Yosemite National Park, preserved as wilderness across the state. The “wilderness” label on these lands bestows upon them a designation that protects them even further than those lands with national park status. The biggest difference being that in wilderness land there can be no buildings, no vehicles, and no roads built, ensuring lands that are preserved as nature intended them to be. Some of the new wilderness land was actually national parkland before, but those lands still faced the possibility of seeing drilling, logging, or mining in the future; the wilderness designation now offers protection from that possibility. Visitors to any protected wilderness area will be guaranteed a tranquil experience as they hike or ride horses through the canyons, the rivers, and giant sequoia redwood trees without any unsightly structures or motorized vehicles.
