BOXER PRUNES WILDERNESS BILL FOES SAY MEASURE CLOSES PUBLIC LAND TO FOREST USERS.

Byline: Kerry Cavanaugh Staff Writer

With her first wilderness bill stalled in Congress, Sen. Barbara Boxer tried a new tack to ban off-road vehicles, bicycles and road construction in 125,000 acres of the Angeles National Forest and 260,000 acres of the Los Padres National Forest.

Supporters say the bill she introduced recently would protect pristine forest from overuse as urban development creeps closer. It also would protect the land from the Bush Administration's push for logging, mining and oil exploration on federal land.

But opponents say the proposed legislation will close public land to some forest users.

``There's no threats of logging, mining, grazing or development,'' said Hans Keifer with the Glendale/Burbank-based Over the Bars Mountain Bike Club. ``If there was any threat at all then we might say OK. ... But they have no specific threats, so I just see it as a land grab.''

Bill authors said they tried to whittle down the proposal to exclude areas popular for off-road vehicles and bikers, however Boxer spokesman David Sandretti admits the legislation will still be a tough sell.

``We're not under any illusions that this will be a cake walk. This will be a very difficult struggle to get his bill through,'' he said.

The California Wild Heritage Act proposes wilderness status for 2.5 million acres of federal land across the state's forests, coastline and deserts and portions of 22 rivers.

The bill would double the wilderness-status area in the Angeles Forest, extending it to the borders of the northeast San Fernando Valley and Santa Clarita.

Boxer's proposal includes areas in the chaparral-covered slopes above Tujunga, the oak woodlands near Santa Clarita and the pine-forested hills overlooking the high desert - all areas that merit wilderness status to protect endangered species, watersheds and the solitude of the forest, bill supporters said.

``We see that open space being chewed up in Los Angeles County. You're going to have more people,'' said Tim Allyn, an organizer with the California Wild Heritage Campaign. ``We need to make sure the wild areas we have now will be there for the next generation and the generation after that.''

In the Los Padres forest the bill would expand existing wilderness zones, upping the wilderness acreage to more than 65 percent of the total forest. It would give protected status to more than 50 miles of Piru Creek near Pyramid Lake and 16 miles of Matilija Creek near Ojai.

Supporters say the new wilderness additions would stymie a proposal to open the forest to oil and gas exploration and offer increased protection to the endangered California condor, which has habitat around the mountain communities near Frazier Park.

Wilderness areas are supposed to be virtually untouched by humans. It prohibits buildings, new roads and future oil drilling and mining. Vehicles, motorboats, aircraft landings and motorized equipment such as chain saws are banned, with exceptions when vehicles and equipment are needed to fight fires and install or check weather and water gauges.

Hunting, fishing and horse riding are allowed in wilderness as well as low-altitude flights by military aircraft.

Boxer introduced the bill in May 2002, but it never left committee. Since then her staff has tweaked the legislation, adding statements to ensure water could be released from Pyramid Lake for water conveyance and trimming proposed parcels so they won't interfere with Los Angeles Department of Water and Power electricity transmission lines or water movement from the Owens Valley.

Rep. Hilda Solis, D-El Monte, is expected to introduce companion legislation for the Southern California wilderness proposals in the next House session.

Kerry Cavanaugh, [phone]

kerry.cavanaugh(at)dailynews.com