Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) praised the House Natural Resources Committee for its approval today of two House companion bills to Senate legislation she introduced to protect and conserve more than 300,000 acres of pristine public land in California.

Senator Boxer said, “I am pleased that the House Natural Resources Committee has approved these two measures, which are critical to protecting California’s wilderness.”

The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act, introduced in the House by Representative Mary Bono (R-Palm Springs), creates four new wilderness areas and expands six existing wilderness areas.  It designates segments of four rivers as wild and scenic and adds four parcels to the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument.  The total scope of the proposal encompasses approximately 200,000 acres of federal lands and 31 miles of rivers.

Boxer said, “The California Desert and Mountain Heritage Act will protect some of the last wild places in Riverside County, one of the fastest growing counties in California.  This measure will protect precious areas ranging from the mountains to the desert, truly magnificent places that deserve to be passed on to future generations of Americans.”

The Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park Wilderness Act, introduced in the House by Representatives Jim Costa (D-Fresno) and Devin Nunes (R-Visalia), designates nearly 115,000 acres of land within the Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park as wilderness.  The proposed wilderness area includes the Redwood Mountain Grove, the largest Giant Sequoia grove within the Park.  It also includes California’s longest cave and the Old Hockett Trail, one of the first cross-Sierra routes in the southern Sierra Nevada range. 

Boxer said, “The Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park Wilderness Act will protect 115,000 acres of spectacular lands, including majestic mountains, canyons, caverns and sequoia groves in Sequoia-Kings Canyon National Park.  This legislation will ensure that these beautiful areas will be sustained and preserved as part of California’s identity and rich, natural heritage.”

The “wilderness” classification is the highest level of protection and conservation for federal public lands in American law.

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