Obama Signs Landmark US Conservation Bill
Date: 31-Mar-09
Country: US
Obama
Signs Landmark US Conservation Bill Photo: Joshua Roberts
President Barack Obama delivers remarks about the Omnibus Public Lands
Management Act of 2009 in the East Room of the White House in Washington
March 30, 2009.
Photo: Joshua Roberts
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama signed sweeping land and water
conservation rules into law on Monday, setting aside millions of acres as
protected areas and delighting environmentalists.
The measure, a package of more than 160 bills, would designate about 2
million acres (809,400 hectares) -- 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.
The House of Representatives approved the measure on a vote of 285-140 a
week after it cleared the Senate, capping years of wrangling and procedural
roadblocks.
Opponents, most of them Republicans, complained the legislation would deny
access for oil and gas drilling and said House Democrats refused to consider
changes.
"This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers,
oceans, national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas for granted," Obama
said at a signing ceremony.
The areas that would be designated as new wilderness are mostly in
California, followed by Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, West
Virginia, New Mexico and Michigan.
Environmentalists welcomed the move.
"As global warming changes wildlife habitat and food sources, it's more
important than ever that we take care of our last remaining wild forests and
rivers," the environmental group Sierra Club said in a statement.
"This is the most important lands protection legislation in decades."
(Reporting by Jeff Mason and Thomas Ferraro, editing by Vicki Allen)
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