Oregon Public Broadcasting

President Obama signed into law Monday one of the largest expansions of wilderness areas in a generation.

The public lands package gives the government’s highest level of protection to half a million acres of remote canyon lands in southwest Idaho and creates five new wilderness areas in Oregon.

Barack Obama: “This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans, national parks, monuments and wilderness areas for granted.  But rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share.  That’s something all Americans can support.”

The package of wilderness protections and park expansions passed Congress last week with wide, bi-partisan support.

In Oregon, the stroke of the president’s pen permanently protects 200,000 acres of wild backcountry on Mount Hood, in the Siskiyou Mountains, and central Oregon badlands.

Washington State will gain two long-discussed national trails.  One traces the geology of cataclysmic Ice Age floods.  The other is the 1200 mile Pacific Northwest National Scenic Trail.  It runs from the continental divide to the Pacific Ocean.