Sponsors (2)
The bill secures large‑scale environmental and wildfire‑resilience benefits, recreation access, and tribal protections across many California federal lands, but it does so by imposing new limits on extractive uses and motorized access, creating implementation costs, potential local economic tradeoffs, and some restrictions on access and private‑land outcomes.
Residents and communities near the designated areas (restoration/wilderness/river corridors) will face lower wildfire risk and better hazard response because the bill mandates coordinated restoration and fire‑management plans and preserves funding/authorities for fuels management and emergency actions.
Visitors, recreationists, and nearby communities gain long‑term environmental and scenic protections across large tracts (including ~318,000 acres of wilderness and protected river corridors), preserving habitat, recreation, and ecosystem recovery from illegal cultivation impacts.
Local economies can benefit from new and improved outdoor recreation (trails, visitor centers), restoration and cleanup projects, and potential local hiring preferences and nonprofit partnerships that create jobs and support tourism.
Small businesses, miners, ranchers, and local governments could lose development, extraction, and resource‑based economic opportunities because the bill withdraws large areas from mining, leasing, and other extractive or multiple‑use activities.
Federal budgets and taxpayers may face increased costs from implementing restoration projects, prescribed burns, studies, new management plans, and authorized construction or maintenance activities that could require appropriations or reallocated agency resources.
Recreationists who use motorized or off‑highway vehicles and small communities near new recreation sites may see restricted access, reduced motorized opportunities, traffic/parking pressures, and local crowding as the bill limits motorized uses and increases visitation in some areas.
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Alejandro Padilla · Last progress December 17, 2025
Creates a large South Fork Trinity–Mad River Restoration Area and numerous new wilderness, Wild and Scenic River, scenic, and special management areas across California federal lands; withdraws designated lands from many mining, leasing, and disposal authorities and sets rules for land use, restoration, fire management, and public access. Directs federal agencies to prepare restoration and updated fire-management plans, conduct multiple feasibility studies for trails, visitor centers, and overnight accommodations, establish a remediation partnership for lands harmed by illegal activities, protect certain utility rights-of-way, and require maps and legal descriptions be made public.