A locally crafted, congressionally endorsed plan to protect more than 40,000 acres north of Yosemite could be a case study in how a divided Congress handles wilderness.
It's called compromise, and it can be a delicate affair.
The striking new plan will let snowmobile enthusiasts roar around on more than 10,000 acres near Sonora Pass. Black bears, mountain lions and wintering bald eagles can remain secluded in the protected wilderness. Pacific Crest Trail hikers can be comforted knowing development won't impinge on their High Sierra treks.
A House committee soon will review the new proposal, but pride of authorship resides beyond Capitol Hill. It's a coalition of Californians who put aside their historic antagonisms to negotiate the package, acre by acre.
"It's really the way it should be done," said Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Tracy.
Pombo chairs the House Resources Committee, which will conduct a hearing on the proposed Sierra Nevada wilderness legislation in the last week of July. A staunch private property advocate and critic of the Endangered Species Act, Pombo is more rancher than environmentalist.
Nonetheless, Pombo said the new California wilderness bill is "pretty close to being able to go forward." Political obstacles remain -- not least, the congressional clock that's ticking fast this election year. The underlying deal itself, though, looks durable.
In the town of Bishop, on the Sierra Nevada's eastern side, 73-year-old Dick Noles considers the wilderness plan a reasonable balance. A hunter and fisherman who co-chairs Advocates for Access to Public Land, Noles helped negotiate part of the package.
The deal includes continued snowmobile access to the Leavitt Bowl area east of Sonora Pass. About 7,500 acres of this is considered to be prime snowmobile turf. Officials in the Mono County town of Bridgeport hope the snowmobile access will bring more tourists.
"I think they got a nice place to play," Noles said. "I felt we really needed to get this land legislated for snowmobiling use, or we might lose the opportunity later on."
Conservationists, in turn, consider the snowmobile access a price worth paying. In the proposed wilderness area, glacially scarred granite is dotted with blue tarns, and the horizon is punctuated by spires and peaks. Portions of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail pass through.
"The windswept view is almost tundra-like," said Angela Ballard, a Fairfax resident and editor of the Pacific Crest Trail Association magazine. "This needs to be kept as a wilderness experience."
The deal includes adding about 640 acres of the Stanislaus National Forest to the existing Emigrant Wilderness in order to protect the Pacific Crest Trail. The trail comes close to Sonora Pass, where environmentalists feared development.
The biggest portion, 39,680 acres, is part of the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest and would be added to the existing Hoover Wilderness.
The proposed wilderness addition is also steeped in cultural history.
The Washoe and Northern Paiute Indians lived during past centuries in the Walker River drainage.
"This addition is the culmination of broad grass-roots support for many years," said Derek Chernoy of the California Wilderness Heritage Campaign. "It is exciting that we will be able to preserve the land in its wild state for generations to come."
The deal also shows how compromise can trump ideological purity when it comes to getting bills passed.
Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., in 2002 introduced a sprawling California wilderness bill that excited environmental groups but stalled in the Republican-controlled Congress. Her bill would have extended federal wilderness protection to 2.5 million acres statewide.
Tellingly, Boxer's colleague, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., did not sign on as co-sponsor of the big bill.
It never received a Senate hearing.
Political dynamics changed when the California Legislature in 2002 redrew congressional district lines. The Mono County communities that had been represented by Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, came under the sway of another Republican congressman who thought compromise possible.
"I said, if you get everybody together, I want them to write the bill," said Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Palmdale. "They live there. They should have the most say."
Still, negotiators had to overcome 20 years of inertia. The snowmobilers did not want to give up the spot they had been using for decades. Environmentalists were determined to protect all the wildland in the area.
The Wilderness Society and off-road access lobbyists spent months talking about boundaries before finally settling.
The deal has since won the approval of supervisors in Inyo and Mono counties. Boxer and Feinstein jointly introduced a version of the bill and quickly secured a Senate committee hearing. Pombo's only remaining question last week was whether any other property or recreation groups retain lingering doubts.
"We're running out of time," McKeon said, "but I'm hopeful we'll get this deal done before we adjourn."Sacramento Bee
