Sponsors (23)
The bill expands permanent wilderness and river protections—improving habitat, water quality, recreation, tribal access, and planning—while restricting some resource and development uses and imposing administrative costs and local infrastructure/visitor-management trade-offs.
Rural communities, visitors, downstream users, and wildlife gain permanent federal protection for roughly 29,000 acres of wilderness and 19.2 miles of river/tributaries, preserving habitat, water quality, scenic and recreational access.
Rural communities benefit from maintained Secretary authority and funding priority for fire and fuels management plus allowed ecosystem restoration actions, which supports quicker wildfire response and habitat restoration in the newly designated areas.
Indigenous tribal communities gain protected access to designated wilderness and rivers for traditional cultural and religious practices, safeguarding tribal religious rights and cultural use.
Rural communities, private landowners, and developers face reduced opportunities for mineral development, certain types of development, and new dams because lands are withdrawn from mining/leasing and river protections limit some land uses.
Taxpayers and Forest Service staff may face increased administrative costs and resource reallocation to prepare legally binding maps, update plans, conduct studies, and manage newly designated wilderness and river segments.
Recreational users and nearby communities may see limits on some motorized recreation, intermittent temporary closures to protect tribal privacy, and higher visitation that strains parking, trails, and local services without guaranteed infrastructure funding.
Based on analysis of 6 sections of legislative text.
Designates four wilderness units (~28,871 acres) in Angeles National Forest, adds Little Rock Creek segments to Wild and Scenic Rivers, requires studies, maps, tribal access rules, and fire-management measures.
Introduced December 17, 2025 by Judy Chu · Last progress December 17, 2025
Designates four new or expanded wilderness areas (totaling roughly 28,871 acres) inside Angeles National Forest and adds specified segments of Little Rock Creek to the Wild and Scenic Rivers system. It requires the Forest Service to manage the new wilderness units under the Wilderness Act with specific rules for fire management, permitted uses (including horseback and recreational rock climbing), protection of tribal access for traditional cultural and religious practices, and withdrawal of the lands from new mining and mineral leasing. Also directs the Secretary of Agriculture to study three San Gabriel River tributary segments for possible Wild and Scenic designation within three years after funding is available, to prepare official maps and legal descriptions, to update forest management plans, and to allow limited continued operation of certain preexisting water facilities under special-use terms to protect wilderness resources.