Federal

M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila Wild and Scenic River Act

Source: Congress.gov · 4,609 words in original text

What This Bill Does

This bill adds specific river segments in New Mexico to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, which protects rivers from development. It also transfers about 440 acres of federal land from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior.

Who It Affects

Federal agencies managing public lands, tribal governments, New Mexico state agencies, people who own grazing permits or water rights in the affected areas, and the general public who may use these rivers.

Key Provisions

• Multiple river segments in the Gila River system are designated as either "wild," "scenic," or "recreational" rivers and protected from mining, drilling, and land sales (Sec. 2(b)) • All federal land within the designated river boundaries is withdrawn from mining, mineral leasing, and public land sales (Sec. 2(c)) • The Secretary of Agriculture and Secretary of the Interior must prepare maps and legal descriptions of the protected river segments (Sec. 2(d)) • Approximately 440 acres of land are transferred from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior (Sec. 3(a)) • The boundary of Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument is expanded to include the transferred land (Sec. 3(b))

What Changes

If passed, numerous river segments in New Mexico gain federal protection status, preventing mining operations and certain land uses. Existing grazing permits, water rights, and tribal hunting and fishing rights remain unaffected. Approximately 440 acres move from Forest Service to National Park Service control.

Important Definitions

"Covered segment" means any river segment designated under the bill's provisions. "Secretary concerned" means either the Secretary of the Interior or Secretary of Agriculture, depending on which agency has jurisdiction over a specific river segment.

I 118TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 1611 To amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain segments of the Gila River system in the State of New Mexico as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, to provide for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over certain Federal land in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes. IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES MARCH 14, 2023 Mr. VASQUEZ (for himself and Ms. STANSBURY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources A BILL To amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act to designate certain segments of the Gila River system in the State of New Mexico as components of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, to provide for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over certain Federal land in the State of New Mexico, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘M.H. Dutch Salmon 4 Greater Gila Wild and Scenic River Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 1611 IH SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS. 1 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 2 (1) COVERED SEGMENT.—The term ‘‘covered 3 segment’’ means a river segment designated by para- 4 graph (233) of section 3(a) of the Wild and Scenic 5 Rivers Act (16 U.S.C. 1274(a)) (as added by sub- 6 section (b)). 7 (2) SECRETARY CONCERNED.—The term ‘‘Sec- 8 retary concerned’’ means— 9 (A) the Secretary of the Interior, with re- 10 spect to a covered segment under the jurisdic- 11 tion of the Secretary of the Interior; and 12 (B) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re- 13 spect to a covered segment under the jurisdic- 14 tion of the Secretary of Agriculture. 15 (3) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the State 16 of New Mexico. 17 (b) DESIGNATION OF SEGMENTS.—Section 3(a) of 18 the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (16 U.S.C. 1274(a)) is 19 amended by adding at the end the following: 20 ‘‘(233) GILA RIVER SYSTEM, NEW MEXICO.— 21 The following segments of the Gila River system in 22 Las Animas Creek, Holden Prong, and McKnight 23 Canyon in the State of New Mexico, to be adminis- 24 tered by the Secretary concerned (as defined in sec- 25 tion 2(a) of the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 1611 IH Wild and Scenic River Act) in the following classi- 1 fications: 2 ‘‘(A) APACHE CREEK.—The approximately 3 10.5-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 4 map entitled ‘Apache Creek’ and dated April 5 30, 2020, as a wild river. 6 ‘‘(B) BLACK CANYON CREEK.— 7 ‘‘(i) The 11.8-mile segment, as gen- 8 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 9 Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 10 as a wild river. 11 ‘‘(ii) The 0.6-mile segment, as gen- 12 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 13 Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 14 as a recreational river. 15 ‘‘(iii) The 1.9-mile segment, as gen- 16 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 17 Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 18 as a recreational river. 19 ‘‘(iv) The 11-mile segment, as gen- 20 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 21 Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 22 as a wild river. 23 ‘‘(C) DIAMOND CREEK.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 1611 IH ‘‘(i) The approximately 13.3-mile seg- 1 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 2 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 3 27, 2020, as a wild river. 4 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 4.7-mile seg- 5 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 6 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 7 27, 2020, as a wild river. 8 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 3.1-mile seg- 9 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 10 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 11 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 12 ‘‘(iv) The approximately 1.6-mile seg- 13 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 14 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 15 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 16 ‘‘(v) The approximately 4.1-mile seg- 17 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 18 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 19 27, 2020, as a wild river. 20 ‘‘(D) SOUTH DIAMOND CREEK.—The ap- 21 proximately 16.1-mile segment, as generally de- 22 picted on the map entitled ‘South Diamond 23 Creek’ and dated March 27, 2020, as a wild 24 river. 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 1611 IH ‘‘(E) GILA RIVER.— 1 ‘‘(i) The approximately 34.9-mile seg- 2 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 3 titled ‘Gila River’ and dated April 30, 4 2020, as a wild river. 5 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 2.5-mile seg- 6 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 7 titled ‘Gila River’ and dated April 30, 8 2020, as a recreational river. 9 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 3-mile seg- 10 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 11 titled ‘Gila River’ and dated April 30, 12 2020, as a wild river. 13 ‘‘(F) GILA RIVER, EAST FORK.—The ap- 14 proximately 10.3-mile segment, as generally de- 15 picted on the map entitled ‘East Fork Gila 16 River’ and dated April 30, 2020, as a wild 17 river. 18 ‘‘(G) GILA RIVER, LOWER BOX.— 19 ‘‘(i) The approximately 3.1-mile seg- 20 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 21 titled ‘Gila River, Lower Box’ and dated 22 April 21, 2020, as a recreational river. 23 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 6.1-mile seg- 24 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 1611 IH titled ‘Gila River, Lower Box’ and dated 1 April 21, 2020, as a wild river. 2 ‘‘(H) GILA RIVER, MIDDLE BOX.— 3 ‘‘(i) The approximately 0.6-mile seg- 4 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 5 titled ‘Gila River, Middle Box’ and dated 6 April 30, 2020, as a recreational river. 7 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 0.4-mile seg- 8 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 9 titled ‘Gila River, Middle Box’’ and dated 10 April 30, 2020, as a recreational river. 11 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 0.3-mile seg- 12 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 13 titled ‘Gila River, Middle Box’ and dated 14 April 30, 2020, as a recreational river. 15 ‘‘(iv) The approximately 0.3-mile seg- 16 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 17 titled ‘Gila River, Middle Box’ and dated 18 April 30, 2020, as a recreational river. 19 ‘‘(v) The approximately 1.6-mile seg- 20 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 21 titled ‘Gila River, Middle Box’ and dated 22 April 30, 2020, as a recreational river. 23 ‘‘(vi) The approximately 9.8-mile seg- 24 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 1611 IH titled ‘Gila River, Middle Box’ and dated 1 April 30, 2020, as a wild river. 2 ‘‘(I) GILA RIVER, MIDDLE FORK.— 3 ‘‘(i) The approximately 1.2-mile seg- 4 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 5 titled ‘Middle Fork Gila River’ and dated 6 May 1, 2020, as a recreational river. 7 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 35.5-mile seg- 8 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 9 titled ‘Middle Fork Gila River’ and dated 10 May 1, 2020, as a wild river. 11 ‘‘(J) GILA RIVER, WEST FORK.— 12 ‘‘(i) The approximately 30.6-mile seg- 13 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 14 titled ‘West Fork Gila River’ and dated 15 May 1, 2020, as a wild river. 16 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 4-mile seg- 17 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 18 titled ‘West Fork Gila River’ and dated 19 May 1, 2020, as a recreational river. 20 ‘‘(K) GILITA CREEK.—The approximately 21 6.4-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 22 map entitled ‘Gilita Creek’ and dated March 4, 23 2020, as a wild river. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •HR 1611 IH ‘‘(L) HOLDEN PRONG.—The approximately 1 7.3-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 2 map entitled ‘Holden Prong’ and dated March 3 27, 2020, as a wild river. 4 ‘‘(M) INDIAN CREEK.— 5 ‘‘(i) The approximately 5-mile seg- 6 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 7 titled ‘Indian Creek’ and dated March 27, 8 2020, as a recreational river. 9 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 9.5-mile seg- 10 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 11 titled ‘Indian Creek’ and dated March 27, 12 2020, as a wild river. 13 ‘‘(N) IRON CREEK.—The approximately 14 13.2-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 15 map entitled ‘Iron Creek’ and dated March 4, 16 2020, as a wild river. 17 ‘‘(O) LAS ANIMAS CREEK.— 18 ‘‘(i) The approximately 5.3-mile seg- 19 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 20 titled ‘Las Animas Creek’ and dated 21 March 27, 2020, as a wild river. 22 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 2.3-mile seg- 23 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •HR 1611 IH titled ‘Las Animas Creek’ and dated 1 March 27, 2020, as a scenic river. 2 ‘‘(P) LITTLE CREEK.— 3 ‘‘(i) The approximately 0.3-mile seg- 4 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 5 titled ‘Little Creek’ and dated May 1, 6 2020, as a recreational river. 7 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 18.3-mile seg- 8 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 9 titled ‘Little Creek’ and dated May 1, 10 2020, as a wild river. 11 ‘‘(Q) MCKNIGHT CANYON.—The approxi- 12 mately 10.3-mile segment, as generally depicted 13 on the map entitled ‘McKnight Canyon’ and 14 dated March 4, 2020, as a wild river. 15 ‘‘(R) MINERAL CREEK.— 16 ‘‘(i) The approximately 8.3-mile seg- 17 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 18 titled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 27, 19 2020, as a wild river. 20 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 0.5-mile seg- 21 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 22 titled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 27, 23 2020, as a recreational river. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •HR 1611 IH ‘‘(iii) The approximately 0.5-mile seg- 1 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 2 titled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 27, 3 2020, as a recreational river. 4 ‘‘(iv) The approximately 0.1-mile seg- 5 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 6 titled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 27, 7 2020, as a recreational river. 8 ‘‘(v) The approximately 0.03-mile seg- 9 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 10 titled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 27, 11 2020, as a recreational river. 12 ‘‘(vi) The approximately 0.02-mile 13 segment, as generally depicted on the map 14 entitled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 15 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 16 ‘‘(vii) The approximately 0.6-mile seg- 17 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 18 titled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 27, 19 2020, as a recreational river. 20 ‘‘(viii) The approximately 0.1-mile 21 segment, as generally depicted on the map 22 entitled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 23 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •HR 1611 IH ‘‘(ix) The approximately 0.03-mile 1 segment, as generally depicted on the map 2 entitled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 3 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 4 ‘‘(x) The approximately 0.7-mile seg- 5 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 6 titled ‘Mineral Creek’ and dated March 27, 7 2020, as a recreational river. 8 ‘‘(S) MOGOLLON CREEK.—The approxi- 9 mately 15.8-mile segment, as generally depicted 10 on the map entitled ‘Mogollon Creek’ and dated 11 April 2, 2020, as a wild river. 12 ‘‘(T) WEST FORK MOGOLLON CREEK.— 13 The approximately 8.5-mile segment, as gen- 14 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘West Fork 15 Mogollon Creek’ and dated March 4, 2020, as 16 a wild river. 17 ‘‘(U) MULE CREEK.—The approximately 18 4.3-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 19 map entitled ‘Mule Creek’ and dated March 4, 20 2020, as a wild river. 21 ‘‘(V) SAN FRANCISCO RIVER, DEVIL’S 22 CREEK.— 23 ‘‘(i) The approximately 1.8-mile seg- 24 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:23 Mar 30, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •HR 1611 IH titled ‘San Francisco River, Devil’s Creek’ 1 and dated October 29, 2021, as a scenic 2 river. 3 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 6.4-mile seg- 4 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 5 titled ‘San Francisco River, Devil’s Creek’ 6 and dated October 29, 2021, as a scenic 7 river. 8 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 6.1-mile seg- 9 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 10 titled ‘San Francisco River, Devil’s Creek’ 11 and dated October 29, 2021, as a scenic 12 river. 13 ‘‘(iv) The approximately 1.2-mile seg- 14 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 15 titled ‘San Francisco River, Devil’s Creek’ 16 and dated October 29, 2021, as a rec- 17 reational river. 18 ‘‘(v) The approximately 5.9-mile seg- 19 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 20 titled ‘San Francisco River, Devil’s Creek’ 21 and dated October 29, 2021, as a rec- 22 reational river. 23 ‘‘(W) SAN FRANCISCO RIVER, LOWER SAN 24 FRANCISCO RIVER CANYON.— 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 05:11 Mar 29, 2023 Jkt 039200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1611.IH H1611 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 13 •HR 1611 IH ‘‘(i) The approximately 1.8-mile seg- 1 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 2 titled ‘San Francisco River, Lower San 3 Francisco River Canyon’ and dated March 4 27, 2020, as a wild river. 5 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 0.6-mile seg- 6 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 7 titled ‘San Francisco River, Lower San 8 Francisco River Canyon’ and dated March 9 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 10 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 14.6-mile 11 segment, as generally depicted on the map 12 entitled ‘San Francisco River, Lower San 13 Francisco River Canyon’ and dated March 14 27, 2020, as a wild river. 15 ‘‘(X) SAN FRANCISCO RIVER, UPPER FRIS- 16 CO BOX.—The approximately 6-mile segment, 17 as generally depicted on the map entitled ‘San 18 Francisco River, Upper Frisco Box’ a [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]

Important: This plain English summary was generated by AI and is provided for informational purposes only. It is not legal advice. Always consult the official bill text on Congress.gov or a qualified attorney for legal matters.