Senator Barbara Boxer introduced the California Wild Heritage Act in May, 2002.  This died in Congress, was updated, and was reintroduced in August, 2003. This is a bill "To designate certain public lands as wilderness and certain rivers as wild and scenic rivers in the State of California, to designate Salmon Restoration Areas, to establish the Sacramento River National Conservation Area and Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest, and for other purposes."  It extends protection to a large number of parcels of land and  rivers throughout California.  Each of these parcels is relatively small except for the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest in the  White Mountains, on the east side of Owens Valley.  A large portion of the and proposed as new wilderness consists of additions at the margins of existing wilderness areas.

map ©2001 - 2003 California Wilderness Coalition: Click on this map to reach a larger "live" map; click on parts of that map to find additional information about specific areas.

The 2003 version of this bill is new. The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution opposing it almost immediately upon its introduction as S.1555 in the Senate. Investigation of this action revealed that the Board of Supervisors has at least a 1 1/2 year history in opposing the Wild Heritage Act. Despite wording in Resolution 173-2002 indicating that the County had conducted a public input process, to date I have found no evidence of either a public input process or a public information process outside of District 5..

My personal position is briefly summarized in these two points of advocacy:

•  The Wilderness Act of 1964 should be amended
  to explicitly authorize mountain bike access to wilderness areas
  
  
• The Wild Heritage Act should be adopted, and the County
  should withdraw its opposition.

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References

Discussion and rebuttal of position statements by...
    El Dorado County Joint Chambers of Commerce
    Regional Council of Rural Counties
        RCRC comments & rebuttal to be added before end of September, 2003

S.1555 information on Senator Boxer's web site
Text of S. 1555, the 2003 bill, as PDF file
Text of S. 1555, the 2003 bill, as web pages (HTML)

Paul Raveling's 2002 letter-to-editor for Village Life, supporting SB 2535
Text of Senate Bill 2535, the 2002 bill
 
    See Library of Congress legislative Information Site, http://thomas.loc.gov,
    for status updates and any revisions introduced by amendments.

Large-scale map of proposed land use changes
Directory of maps of individual areas

California Wild Heritage Campaign web pages on the California Wilderness Coalition web site

National Wilderness Preservation System
NWPS includes the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service.  Each organization has its own policies for wilderness management, but all are based on the Wilderness Act of 1964.

Law and policy on wilderness:

Wilderness Act of 1964.
Bureau of Land Management Wilderness Management Policy
Forest Service Policy for Wilderness Management
US Federal Wildland Fire Policy
National Park Service Wilderness Policy
National Park Service Director's Order #41:  Wilderness Preservation and Management
Federal Aviation Regulations, FAA site
Federal Aviation Regulations, searchable index with better results than FAA's search

Wildland fire management practices and wildfire ecology:

El Dorado National Forest:  Fire Ecology
Western Fire Ecology Center
Wildfire Central
USGS Wildland Fire Research
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service  Fire Management
Wildland Fire Research Group at the University of California Berkeley
Rocky Mountain Research Station  Wildland Fire Research
National Fire Plan
Yellowstone Wildland Fire Management Plan
Florida Division of Forestry prescribed-fire site  ("Fight Fire With Fire")
Science Daily article:  USGS Studies Wildfire Ecology In The Western United States
Wildfire History and Ecology on the Colorado Plateau

Joint Chambers' assertions:

SB 2535 will severely limit or restrict outdoor recreation
    Off-highway vehicle and mountain bike activities
    Fishing, camping, boating, backpacking
    Especially for the elderly and disabled who rely on vehicle access
    Detail rebuttal, recreation

SB 2535 would continue to hamstring vital resource-based industries
by more unbalanced over-regulation
    Forest products
    Beef production
    Detail rebuttal, industries

SB 2535 would continue to weaken prudent and proper forest management practices,
crucial to maintaining healthy forests and meadows
    Timber harvesting
    Grazing
    Detail rebuttal, forest management

SB 2535 would hamper search and rescue operations and fighting forest fires
    Limited and restricted motor vehicle access
    Detail rebuttal, emergencies
    Detail rebuttal, emergency vehicles
    Detail rebuttal, helicopter flyovers
    Detailed rebuttal, eme

'The "Boxer Bill" will continue a "decades-long" pattern of "hands off"
forest management practices that continue tio destroy the health of the forests
and create a potential "fire storm" disaster akin to the Arizona wildfires
that burned over 500,000 acres and destroyed over 500 homes.'
    Detail rebuttal, Arizona Rodeo-Chediski fire

'Our forests and wilderness areas need medical attention through proper
care and hands-on attention...'
    See forest management  and the links listed for Wildland fire management practices and wildfire ecology