protected land

In a rare Sunday session the Senate cleared the way for the protection of 2 million acres of land in 9 states.  This is largest expansion of wilderness protection in 25 years.

The measure — actually a collection of about 160 bills — would confer the government’s highest level of protection on land ranging from California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range to Oregon’s Mount Hood, 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 would be designated as wilderness.