Democratic-led House makes conservation push with lands bill

WASHINGTON — The House passed legislation Friday that would create about 1.5 million acres of new wilderness and incorporate nearly 1,200 miles of waterways into the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System as Democrats move to protect more public lands — with President Joe Biden’s blessing.

The bill passed mostly along party lines by a vote of 227-200. Eight Republicans joined all but one Democrat in voting for the bill.

Biden has set a goal of conserving at least 30% of U.S. lands and ocean by 2030, a move that supporters say will help curb global warming while preserving some of the nation’s most scenic lands for future generations of Americans to enjoy. But like other planks of Biden’s agenda, the bill faces an uncertain future in the 50-50 Senate, where support from at least 10 Republicans would be needed to overcome a filibuster.

Republicans said the wilderness area designations would restrict use of those lands and make them more susceptible to catastrophic forest fires. Lands designated as wilderness receive the government’s highest level of protection and are generally off-limits to motorized vehicles with allowed activities focused on recreation such as hiking, camping and horseback riding.

The legislation is largely a collection of bills that the House approved last year but did not make it into law. It is one of the largest land protection packages Congress has ever considered and covers almost 3 million acres of public lands, overwhelmingly in Colorado, California, Washington and Arizona.

“Not only will it help protect the air we breathe and the water that we drink, but also the wildlife that call these untouched areas home,” said Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo., the bill’s lead sponsor.

One provision in the bill would permanently withdraw more than 1 million acres of federal land north and south of the Grand Canyon National Park from eligibility for any future mining claims, but leaves valid, existing claims intact. Proponents say uranium deposits in northern Arizona should not be mined for fear of contaminating the Grand Canyon.

Republican lawmakers portrayed the bill as a job killer in rural communities because the new wilderness restrictions would mean a ban on logging and mining and motorized vehicles. Without access to critical minerals, they said, the U.S. becomes more reliant on other countries such as China to meet its economic and defense needs.