by Victoria Brandon, Redwood Chapter Chair
At our January meeting Chapter executive committee members were fascinated to receive a presentation on a dramatic new proposal to create 16 new federal Wilderness areas and 15 Wild and Scenic Rivers in the northern part of the Chapter. All of the newly protected areas would be situated in Jared Huffman’s Congressional District 2, with the bulk in Trinity County, others in Mendocino, Humboldt and Del Norte counties -- and far to the south, Olema Creek in Marin.
This opportunity for permanent protection rises from deep historical roots. Ten years ago Congressman Mike Thompson represented most of the area, and with the ardent support of the Sierra Club authored legislation most of us called the “Wilderness Bill.” This legislation passed in 2006, protecting 275,000 spectacular acres in five Redwood Chapter counties from Del Norte to Napa. At the time some other tracts of land with equally staunch Wilderness attributes had to be excluded for various land-management reasons, and all the potential wilderness areas in Trinity County were left out because they were not part of Congressman Thompson’s district.
Fast forward to the 2010 census and subsequent Congressional redistricting. When the smoke cleared and the ink dried on the map, the handful of voters in Trinity County had been added to the new “coastal” Congressional District now held by Congressman Huffman, who like Congressman Thompson is renowned for his passion for public lands protection. At the same time some of the areas left out of the 2006 bill had become suitable for wilderness status, for example after completion of restoration projects requiring heavy equipment.
The opportunity for action was too good to pass up. A broadly based stakeholder group under the leadership of the Wilderness Society and California Wilderness Coalition has been working quietly for more than a year to define boundaries, identify outstanding natural features, and hold quiet discussions with neighboring private landowners and local tribes. The campaign, called Mountains and Rivers, is currently engaged in canvassing the region to collect support letters in order to demonstrate the strong grassroots backing Congressman Huffman needs to author legislation.
Please visit their website, mountainsandrivers.org, to learn about these proposals in much greater detail, and consider offering a personal letter of support.
We’ll be bringing you additional information about this project as it moves forward, and with any luck will be able to offer Outings into some of the proposed Wilderness areas so you can see for yourself how special they are. Exciting, isn’t it?