House kills bill to shield areas of Virginia wilderness

Legislation that would have created new wilderness areas in Southwest Virginia was defeated Wednesday in the House of Representatives.
The Virginia Ridge and Valley Act would create several new wilderness areas and expand some existing wilderness in the Jefferson National Forest. It also would create new scenic area designations – in all, placing permanent new protections on more than 50,000 acres in the national forest.

The act, in the works for several years, was among dozens of bills folded into the omnibus package defeated Wednesday.
The larger package had already passed the Senate and groups pushing for it expected House approval.
Nationally, it would add wilderness protections on more than 2 million acres in nine states.
Land designated as wilderness can be used for hiking, camping, hunting, fishing and other traditional purposes. But the designation also bars mechanized equipment and vehicles, including chain saws and mountain bikes.
David Carr, public lands director for the Charlottesville-based Southern Environmental Law Center, said the Virginia portion of the omnibus bill was not the section that bogged down the legislation.
“This is a temporary setback,” he said. “We’ll stick with it, and it’ll get done.”
Majority Democrats agreed to amend the bill to clarify that it wouldn’t impose new restrictions on hunting, fishing or trapping on federal land. The amendment was sought by the National Rifle Association.

Carr said the amendment targeted parts of the legislation creating some national trails and national heritage areas outside Virginia.
A majority of House members supported the bill, including Rep. Tom Perriello, D-Ivy, but the measure was defeated because it did not receive the needed two-thirds vote. The vote was 282-144 in favor — two votes short of approval.
“There are a lot of good bills, sponsored by both Democrats and Republicans, contained in [the lands bill] that deserve passage,” said Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee. “We will continue to determine the best course of action to advance these measures.”

House debate on the bill turned contentious, as Republicans complained that the measure — one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in 25 years — would cost up to $10 billion and block oil and gas development on millions of acres of federal property.
Democrats said the bill was among the most important conservation measures debated in the House in many years.