Obama Signs Wilderness Protection Bill

(CBS/ AP)  President Barack Obama signed legislation Monday setting aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness.

Obama called the new law among the most important in decades "to protect, preserve and pass down our nation's most treasured landscapes to future generations."

At a White House ceremony, Obama said the law guarantees that Americans "will not take our forests, rivers, oceans, national parts, monuments, and wilderness areas for granted, but rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share. That's something all Americans can support."

The law — a collection of nearly 170 separate measures — represents one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in a quarter-century. It confers the government's highest level of protection on land in nine states.

Land protected under the 1,200-page law ranges from California's Sierra Nevada and Oregon's Mount Hood to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

Land in Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan and Zion National Park in Utah also won wilderness protection, and more than 1,000 miles of rivers in nearly a dozen states were designated as wild and scenic. The law expands wilderness designation — which blocks nearly all development — into areas that previously were not protected.

The law also protects land in Alaska under a contentious land swap that allows the state to go forward with a planned airport access road in a remote wildlife refuge near the Bering Sea. Critics call the project a "road to nowhere."

Environmental groups and lawmakers in both parties said the law will strengthen the national park system, restore national forests, preserve wild and scenic rivers, protect battlefields and restore balance to the management of public lands.

Opponents, mostly Republicans, had called the legislation a "land grab" that would block energy development on vast swaths of federal land.

Aside from the public lands provisions in the bill, the measure includes the Christopher and Dana Reeve Paralysis Act, which provides for paralysis research; paralysis rehabilitation and care; improving quality of life for persons with paralysis and other physical disabilities, reports CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.

Mr. Obama said it's the first piece of comprehensive legislation specifically aimed at addressing the challenges faced by Americans living with paralysis, Knoller reports. The president called Reeve's son Matthew to the stage for the signing.

[4mtnman]

i like barrack. i voted for barrack. i think he will be a great president.
unfortunately, he's from the rural mind-set. he thinks he's doing a good thing by passing a bill the so called "environmentalist" push as protection for our national forrests. IT'S A LIE.
wilderness is the land of "NO USE". you can't drive a car in a wilderness area, you can't ride an ohv in a wilderness area, you can't ride a bicycle in a wilderness area, you can't even get access to most wilderness areas. there are laws already in place to protect our precious lands. for those areas that need further protection, there are plenty of ways to add new regulations that protect the land without shutting out the people who will most use and enjoy it. don't fool yourselfs, once it goes wilderness it may be protected, but you will never see it ... either will your grandchildren.

[gramto8]

Sry, I am falling asleep at the desk.. The numbers in the subtraction should be 52428960 acres left in Utah.

[EatSmoke]

I wish that half of the people that like this legislation could see the total devastation that wildfires do to the "Pristine Wilderness Areas" because they are in a Wilderness Area.

BREAKIN NEWS for the ignorant

The US Forest Service DOES NOT fight wildfires in Wilderness areas as it is an act of nature. They let them burn themselves out and only fight them when they endanger non wilderness areas. OK so instead of having selected logging it is total destruction by fire Yep that makes sense. About as much sense as putting a Junior Senator with only 143 days experience in the office of POTUS.

[gramto8]

Back in 1996, Bill Clinton locked up 1.5 million acres of land in Utah in what is known as the Grand Staircase National Monument, and more recently 264,000 acres were locked up in northern Arizona in what is the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. Before all those acres were locked away, did you ever visit those lands? Did you know they were already in a pristine state? Who do you think was taking care of them before the government moved in and took them over? Gee, maybe it was the people who were already here. But of course, that couldn't be, we are just idiots too dumb to know better.
Posted by leeanna59 at 8:51 AM : Mar 31, 2009

You would probably complain if you were hung with a new rope.

The 1.9 million acres you are complaining about is from a total of 54328960 acres in the state of Utah, most of which is uninhabitable. The Grand Staircase Area is included in that uninhabitable area, but could still have been destroyed by people bringing in their 4-wheel-drive vehicles, their ATVs, or their oil wells. Considering that this area was the last place in the Continental United States to be mapped, I cannot understand why it is such a big ordeal for you to do without it. It isn't like you don't have 54328958.1 other acres in Utah to use.

The same scenario would hold true for the Vermillion Cliffs. They are a beautiful area. They do not need a bunch of idiots with 4WD or ATVs ruining them. With this protection, maybe, just maybe, our kids and grandkids can enjoy their beauty also.

[214111]

The general public, who believe any blog they happen upon, are willing to blast President Obama for something he promised to do as soon as he became president? In December of 2008, just before Bush was to leave office, Bush and Cheney made an agreement with private corporations to lease our Wilderness Areas for logging, coal mining, and oil drilling. Cheney and Bush, if you care to find this for yourselves, did NOT use legal procedures for this corporate leasing. It took Robert Redford and a young college student, De Christopher, to stop the use of this beautiful land for corporate profits. We could go around the world and discover the national treasures of many countries (check out the Seven Wonders of the World, for instance) and point out the foresight of the citizens from history who recognized that every country is proud of the legacies that they will pass on for generations.

Oh no! Not us! We are annoyed at Obama's fight to preserve OUR legacies: the Wilderness Areas. Instead, we have depicted this President as a "land-grabber," as if HE is claiming this land for himself. Obama is restoring and continuing the situation for the benefit of Wilderness lands before Cheney and Bush deceptively leased this land to corporate powers. You are annoyed because you can't ride your all-terrain vehicle through Wilderness areas? Are you mental? All-terrain vehicles and Ski-mobiles kill animals because of just the noise! If you rode your ATV through ordinary neighborhoods, I feel certain you would be forever banned from that neighborhood. It is amazing what "spin" people can put on a positive attempt by our leadership, and turn it into a negative.

Before you believe every single thing you read, see, or hear, keep in mind that NO ONE in the media has to tell the truth. Some say: "But I heard that on Fox News! Fox News won a lawsuit in 2003, using as their defense:

Fox News is free to distort and lie in the media. This is called the right to free speech!

Thousand of blogs merely pass on disinformation because they heard it, saw it, read it, are not aware that lying is a Constitutional Right in the good ol' U.S.A.

Some of us resent your lack of vision. Would Iraq be annoyed if you drove noisy vehicles over the Babylonian Gardens? Would Greece be annoyed if you ran into the Colossus of Rhodes with your ATV? Would Italy mind if you attempted to climb the the stairs with your ATV, inside the ancient Roman Colosseum?

[genexrs08]

OH PLEASE...thats the best you can do???
LETS just all stop driving and flying everywhere, dumb.
I want a clean environment for future generations, whats so horrible about that?

[genexrs08]

Krauq,

AS far as the war being worth fighting for, talking to one solder, isnt the opinion of all. I too have had MANY friends and family members who are in the military who dont agree with the war. Luckly they are all still alive.

THere are already too many unwanted starving children right here in this country, not to mention around the world. Im sorry, but the arguement that many want babies, isnt a valid one.

YES, I do donate my time to homeless shelters.

Im happy that not all conservatives are right wing nut jobs... so good for u that u are not a complete hypocrate.

[honestabe8]

dongo3: perhaps you should, before you call anyone "brain-dead", learn how to spell Endangered. now you can resume your mindless rambling

[Marie Zarankevich]

Thank you very much, Mr. President.

[krauq]

genexrs08

you want us to have a better environment? Tell Obama to stop flying on Air Force 1 then. I would bet that would help out a lot.

[krauq]

genexrs08

Funny you should say that Obama supports choice. Apparently, it is not the baby's choice.

I actually accept abortion in special circumstances (rape, baby will not live, or woman's life is in danger) . I think many conservatives have the same beliefs.

1) I do support the Iraq War.
I do not know anyone who went to the Iraq war, but my roommate did. The funny thing is, he told me that his friends said it was a war fighting for. I find it an insult for ungrateful brats like you to say that the war was a mistake. IDK about you, but I believe the soldiers more than I believe you.

2) I am AGAINST the death penalty. Surprised?

3) We are not against gay people. We do not like them trying to destroy what is left of the sanctity of marriage. Note that I said "what is left"

4) No, I do not. Do you?

I also noticed that you asked NoReasoningWithLiberals if he would raise all the babies himself. I wouldn't think so, but there are those who want babies but cannot reproduce.

Your turn