COUNTYWIDE : Bill Would Protect Wilderness Area

Rep. Robert J. Lagomarsino (R-Ventura) and three other congressmen introduced an extensive conservation bill Wednesday that designates vast portions of Los Padres National Forest as wilderness protected from development.

The legislation, virtually identical to a bill that passed the House in 1989 but died in the Senate, would set aside nearly 400,000 acres as protected wilderness and provide wild and scenic protections to 85 miles along three rivers in the national forest, which stretches from Los Angeles County to Big Sur.

The centerpiece of the bill is a new 220,500-acre Sespe wilderness area in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that would include Sespe Hot Springs, Topatopa, once considered the site for a dam on Sespe Creek, and 53,000-acre Sespe Condor Sanctuary.

The bill would declare 31 miles of Sespe Creek as “wild and scenic”--a federal designation for protected rivers. It would temporarily place another 10.5-mile section of Sespe Creek off limits so a study can be done.

But a third section of the creek outside the forest boundaries near Fillmore would not be protected from a proposed dam, Lagomarsino said in a statement. “In view of the drought, we felt it would be shortsighted to permanently foreclose all options for future water development on the Sespe,” he said.

The other sponsors include Reps. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), Bill Thomas (R-Bakersfield) and Leon Panetta (R-Carmel Valley).