2009-03-28

Congress Approves Landmark Conservation Bill. By Thomas Ferraro, Reuters, March 26, 2009. "The Democratic-led U.S. Congress gave final approval on Wednesday to sweeping land and water conservation legislation that environmental groups praised as one of the most significant in U.S. history. The measure, a package of more than 160 bills, would set aside about 2 million acres -- parks, rivers, streams, desert, forest and trails -- in nine states as new wilderness and render them off limits to oil and gas drilling and other development... Opponents, most of them Republican, complained the legislation would deny access for oil and gas drilling and said House Democrats refused to consider changes. The 2 million acres that would be designated as new wilderness are mostly in California, followed by Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia, New Mexico and Michigan. Separately, the legislation would permanently protect and restore a 26 million-acre system composed of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management's most historic and scenic lands and waters, including the Canyons of the Ancients in Colorado and Red Rock Canyon outside of Las Vegas."

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