The U.S. Senate has approved a massive package of land management bills that includes Idaho Sen. Mike Crapo's Owyhee canyonlands wilderness legislation.
The Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 must now be cleared by the U.S. House of Representatives before it can be signed into law. The Senate approved the large piece of legislation on Thursday by a vote of 73-21.
The bill contains more than 150 land-management measures, including Crapo's Owyhee bill. That legislation would protect 517,000 acres of high-desert uplands and steep-sided canyons in six wilderness areas—ranging from the 12,468-acre Pole Creek Wilderness to the 269,016-acre Owyhee River Wilderness—in Idaho's remote southwest corner.
It would also protect 316 miles of rivers in the Owyhee, Bruneau and Jarbidge river systems under Wild and Scenic designations and release nearly 200,000 acres of wilderness study areas to multiple use.
In addition to the Owyhee designations, the omnibus bill includes more than 128,000 acres of national forest wilderness designations around Mount Hood in Oregon and nearly 256,000 acres of wilderness in Zion National Park and surrounding Washington County in southwest Utah. In all, the legislation would protect more than 2 million acres as new wilderness areas in nine states.
The omnibus bill also includes Wyoming legislation aimed at protecting hundreds of miles of rivers in the upper Snake River watershed. Dubbed the Craig Thomas Snake Headwaters Legacy Act, the bill would protect 387 miles of rivers and streams in the drainage under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Another Wyoming bill included in the package prohibits further energy leasing on 1.2 million acres in the Wyoming Range south of Jackson.
Idaho Rep. Mike Simpson's Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act and its more than 318,000 acres of new wilderness in the Boulder and White Cloud mountains is not included in the omnibus bill. It is expected to come before Congress later this year.
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo
