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

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3670 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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES MAY 7, 2020 Mr. UDALL (for himself and Mr. HEINRICH) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Nat- ural 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 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3670 IS SEC. 2. DESIGNATION OF WILD AND SCENIC RIVERS. 1 (a) FINDINGS; PURPOSE.— 2 (1) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that— 3 (A) the Greater Gila River watershed and 4 other rivers in the Gila National Forest are 5 cherished by the people of the State of New 6 Mexico and visitors from across the United 7 States for their clean water, outstanding fish 8 and wildlife habitat, low-cost recreational oppor- 9 tunities for local communities, and cultural 10 sites; 11 (B) recreation, including hunting, fishing, 12 camping, backpacking, hiking, wildlife viewing, 13 horseback riding, and floating, increasingly sup- 14 ports important economic activity for local com- 15 munities; 16 (C) the Greater Gila River watershed and 17 other rivers in the Gila National Forest— 18 (i) are a national treasure deserving 19 of inclusion in the National Wild and Sce- 20 nic Rivers System; 21 (ii) possess numerous outstandingly 22 remarkable values; and 23 (iii) contain segments that merit the 24 high level of protection provided by the 25 Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (16 U.S.C. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3670 IS 1271 et seq.) to maintain the benefits pro- 1 vided by the Greater Gila River watershed 2 and other rivers in the Gila National For- 3 est for future generations of people in the 4 State of New Mexico to enjoy; and 5 (D) wild and scenic river designations— 6 (i) recognize the importance of main- 7 taining the values of the segments, while 8 having no effect on activities or rights de- 9 scribed in subsection (h); 10 (ii) are compatible with traditional 11 values and cultural uses important to rural 12 communities; 13 (iii) provide multiple benefits to the 14 local community and beyond, including 15 by— 16 (I) focusing management on river 17 and river-related resources and values, 18 including supporting voluntary man- 19 agement on adjacent non-Federal 20 land; 21 (II) protecting rivers in a manner 22 complementary to the Wilderness Act 23 (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.), as con- 24 templated under section 10(b) of the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3670 IS Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (16 1 U.S.C. 1281(b)); 2 (III) preserving and enhancing 3 public access, including for the legal 4 use of off-highway vehicles, while not 5 opening private land to public access; 6 (IV) preserving and enhancing 7 the protection of cultural artifacts and 8 Tribal sacred and ceremonial sites; 9 (V) preserving and enhancing 10 recreational opportunities; 11 (VI) encouraging and enhancing 12 traditional uses, such as hunting and 13 fishing; 14 (VII) better informing the public 15 about areas in the region with excep- 16 tional characteristics and opportuni- 17 ties for unique experiences; and 18 (VIII) promoting the outdoor 19 recreation economy; and 20 (iv) do not— 21 (I) affect private property rights 22 or restrict development or use on pri- 23 vate land within or adjacent to a des- 24 ignated river corridor; 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3670 IS (II) affect existing water rights, 1 interstate water compacts, or existing 2 irrigation systems and other water de- 3 velopment or distribution facilities; 4 (III) affect grazing operations; 5 (IV) limit access for the public to 6 public land within a designated river 7 corridor; or 8 (V) open private land to public 9 access. 10 (2) PURPOSE.—The purpose of this section is 11 to protect for current and future generations of peo- 12 ple in the United States the outstandingly remark- 13 able scenic, natural, cultural, wildlife, fish, rec- 14 reational, scientific, historic, cultural, ecological, and 15 other values of certain segments of the Greater Gila 16 River watershed and other rivers in the Gila Na- 17 tional Forest. 18 (b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section: 19 (1) COVERED SEGMENT.—The term ‘‘covered 20 segment’’ means a river segment designated by para- 21 graph (231) of section 3(a) of the Wild and Scenic 22 Rivers Act (16 U.S.C. 1274(a)) (as added by sub- 23 section (c)). 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 6 •S 3670 IS (2) SECRETARY CONCERNED.—The term ‘‘Sec- 1 retary concerned’’ means— 2 (A) the Secretary of the Interior, with re- 3 spect to a covered segment under the jurisdic- 4 tion of the Secretary of the Interior; and 5 (B) the Secretary of Agriculture, with re- 6 spect to a covered segment under the jurisdic- 7 tion of the Secretary of Agriculture. 8 (3) SENSITIVE SPECIES.—The term ‘‘sensitive 9 species’’ means a species— 10 (A) that is listed or proposed for listing as 11 endangered or threatened under the Endan- 12 gered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et 13 seq.); 14 (B) that is identified by the State as a spe- 15 cies of greatest conservation need; or 16 (C) that, as determined by the Secretary 17 concerned, requires special management consid- 18 eration— 19 (i) to promote the conservation of the 20 species; or 21 (ii) to reduce the need for future list- 22 ing of the species as endangered or threat- 23 ened under the Endangered Species Act of 24 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.). 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 7 •S 3670 IS (4) STATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means the State 1 of New Mexico. 2 (c) DESIGNATION OF SEGMENTS.—Section 3(a) of 3 the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (16 U.S.C. 1274(a)) is 4 amended by adding at the end the following: 5 ‘‘(231) GILA RIVER SYSTEM, NEW MEXICO.— 6 The following segments of the Gila River system in 7 Las Animas Creek, Holden Prong, and McKnight 8 Canyon in the State of New Mexico, to be adminis- 9 tered by the Secretary concerned (as defined in sec- 10 tion 2(b) of the M.H. Dutch Salmon Greater Gila 11 Wild and Scenic River Act) in the following classi- 12 fications: 13 ‘‘(A) APACHE CREEK.—The approximately 14 10.5-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 15 map entitled ‘Apache Creek’ and dated April 16 30, 2020, as a wild river. 17 ‘‘(B) BLACK CANYON CREEK.— 18 ‘‘(i) The 11.8-mile segment, as gen- 19 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 20 Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 21 as a wild river. 22 ‘‘(ii) The 0.6-mile segment, as gen- 23 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 8 •S 3670 IS Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 1 as a recreational river. 2 ‘‘(iii) The 1.9-mile segment, as gen- 3 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 4 Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 5 as a recreational river. 6 ‘‘(iv) The 11-mile segment, as gen- 7 erally depicted on the map entitled ‘Black 8 Canyon Creek’ and dated April 30, 2020, 9 as a wild river. 10 ‘‘(C) DIAMOND CREEK.— 11 ‘‘(i) The approximately 13.3-mile seg- 12 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 13 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 14 27, 2020, as a wild river. 15 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 4.7-mile seg- 16 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 17 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 18 27, 2020, as a wild river. 19 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 3.1-mile seg- 20 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 21 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 22 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 23 ‘‘(iv) The approximately 1.6-mile seg- 24 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 9 •S 3670 IS titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 1 27, 2020, as a recreational river. 2 ‘‘(v) The approximately 4.1-mile seg- 3 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 4 titled ‘Diamond Creek’ and dated March 5 27, 2020, as a wild river. 6 ‘‘(D) SOUTH DIAMOND CREEK.—The ap- 7 proximately 16.1-mile segment, as generally de- 8 picted on the map entitled ‘South Diamond 9 Creek’ and dated March 27, 2020, as a wild 10 river. 11 ‘‘(E) GILA RIVER.— 12 ‘‘(i) The approximately 34.9-mile seg- 13 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 14 titled ‘Gila River’ and dated April 30, 15 2020, as a wild river. 16 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 2.5-mile seg- 17 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 18 titled ‘Gila River’ and dated April 30, 19 2020, as a recreational river. 20 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 3-mile seg- 21 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 22 titled ‘Gila River’ and dated April 30, 23 2020, as a wild river. 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 10 •S 3670 IS ‘‘(F) GILA RIVER, EAST FORK.—The ap- 1 proximately 10.3-mile segment, as generally de- 2 picted on the map entitled ‘East Fork Gila 3 River’ and dated April 30, 2020, as a wild 4 river. 5 ‘‘(G) GILA RIVER, GILA LOWER BOX.— 6 ‘‘(i) The approximately 3.1-mile seg- 7 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 8 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Lower Box’ and 9 dated April 21, 2020, as a recreational 10 river. 11 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 6.1-mile seg- 12 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 13 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Lower Box’ and 14 dated April 21, 2020, as a wild river. 15 ‘‘(H) GILA RIVER, GILA MIDDLE BOX.— 16 ‘‘(i) The approximately 0.6-mile seg- 17 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 18 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Middle Box’ and 19 dated April 30, 2020, as a recreational 20 river. 21 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 0.4-mile seg- 22 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 23 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Middle Box’’ and 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 11 •S 3670 IS dated April 30, 2020, as a recreational 1 river. 2 ‘‘(iii) The approximately 0.3-mile seg- 3 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 4 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Middle Box’ and 5 dated April 30, 2020, as a recreational 6 river. 7 ‘‘(iv) The approximately 0.3-mile seg- 8 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 9 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Middle Box’ and 10 dated April 30, 2020, as a recreational 11 river. 12 ‘‘(v) The approximately 1.6-mile seg- 13 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 14 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Middle Box’ and 15 dated April 30, 2020, as a recreational 16 river. 17 ‘‘(vi) The approximately 9.8-mile seg- 18 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 19 titled ‘Gila River, Gila Middle Box’ and 20 dated April 30, 2020, as a wild river. 21 ‘‘(I) GILA RIVER, MIDDLE FORK.— 22 ‘‘(i) The approximately 1.2-mile seg- 23 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 12 •S 3670 IS titled ‘Middle Fork Gila River’ and dated 1 May 1, 2020, as a recreational river. 2 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 35.5-mile seg- 3 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 4 titled ‘Middle Fork Gila River’ and dated 5 May 1, 2020, as a wild river. 6 ‘‘(J) GILA RIVER, WEST FORK.— 7 ‘‘(i) The approximately 30.6-mile seg- 8 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 9 titled ‘West Fork Gila River’ and dated 10 May 1, 2020, as a wild river. 11 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 4-mile seg- 12 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 13 titled ‘West Fork Gila River’ and dated 14 May 1, 2020, as a recreational river. 15 ‘‘(K) GILITA CREEK.—The approximately 16 6.4-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 17 map entitled ‘Gilita Creek’ and dated March 4, 18 2020, as a wild river. 19 ‘‘(L) HOLDEN PRONG.—The approximately 20 7.3-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 21 map entitled ‘Holden Prong’ and dated March 22 27, 2020, as a wild river. 23 ‘‘(M) INDIAN CREEK.— 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 21:26 May 20, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 13 •S 3670 IS ‘‘(i) The approximately 5-mile seg- 1 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 2 titled ‘Indian Creek’ and dated March 27, 3 2020, as a recreational river. 4 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 9.5-mile seg- 5 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 6 titled ‘Indian Creek’ and dated March 27, 7 2020, as a wild river. 8 ‘‘(N) IRON CREEK.—The approximately 9 13.2-mile segment, as generally depicted on the 10 map entitled ‘Iron Creek’ and dated March 4, 11 2020, as a wild river. 12 ‘‘(O) LAS ANIMAS CREEK.— 13 ‘‘(i) The approximately 5.3-mile seg- 14 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 15 titled ‘Las Animas Creek’ and dated 16 March 27, 2020, as a wild river. 17 ‘‘(ii) The approximately 2.3-mile seg- 18 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 19 titled ‘Las Animas Creek’ and dated 20 March 27, 2020, as a scenic river. 21 ‘‘(P) LITTLE CREEK.— 22 ‘‘(i) The approximately 0.3-mile seg- 23 ment, as generally depicted on the map en- 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 23:44 May 14, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3670.IS S3670 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42PROD with BILLS 14 •S 3670 IS titled ‘Little Creek’ [Text truncated for display. Full text available on Congress.gov.]