Senate boosts wilderness protection (the good guys now run the show)

[Botany]

This is really great news!

Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and soul.
John Muir

http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jan/11/senate-boosts-wilderness-protection-across-us/

Senate boosts wilderness protection
Matthew Daly ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sunday, January 11, 2009

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare Sunday session, the Senate advanced legislation that would set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as wilderness.
Majority Democrats assembled more than enough votes to overcome GOP stalling tactics in an early showdown for the new Congress.

Republicans complained that Democrats did not allow amendments on the massive bill, which calls for the largest expansion of wilderness protection in 25 years.
But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., and other Democrats said the bill — a holdover from last year — was carefully written and included measures
sponsored by both Republicans and Democrats.

By a 66-12 vote, with only 59 needed to limit debate, lawmakers agreed to clear away procedural hurdles despite partisan wrangling that had threatened pledges
by leaders to work cooperatively as the new Obama administration takes office. Senate approval is expected later this week. Supporters hope the House will follow suit.


snip

The measure — actually a collection of about 160 bills — would confer the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's
Sierra Nevada mountain range to Oregon's Mount Hood, Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.
Land in Idaho's Owyhee canyons, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore in Michigan
and Zion National Park in Utah also would be designated as wilderness.