NOTEBOOK: LANDMARK WILDERNESS RULING FOUR DECADES OLD.

Byline: Bill Becher Special to the Daily News

This month, the Federal Wilderness Act turned 40 and outdoor enthusiasts are celebrating the landmark legislation that has set aside 106 million acres of public land to be preserved for future generations.

Motorized vehicles and equipment, such as chain saws, are prohibited in wilderness areas. Camping, hiking, climbing, fishing, hunting, canoeing and horseback riding are allowed; grazing livestock is generally allowed. Off-limits are mountain biking, commercial logging, road-building, oil and gas leasing and mining, except for pre-existing claims.

Even President Bush has signed off on adding 529,604 acres at a time when environmentalists are attempting to use the Wilderness Act to block his pursuit of more oil and gas drilling and timbering on federal land.

Only Congress can designate wilderness, although the president has to sign laws doing it. The acreage added so far in Bush's tenure is the least of any president since Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act on Sept. 3, 1964.

Pending legislation in Congress that would designate additional wilderness in California is supported by wilderness advocates, although mountain bikers are concerned the proposed designations would ban them from trails they've ridden for many years.

--Getting the lead out: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently approved three new nontoxic shot types for use in waterfowl hunting. The approval brings to 10 the number of nontoxic shot types available to hunters.

International Nontoxic Composites Corporation's tungsten-bronze-iron shot, ENVIRON-Metal Inc.'s tungsten-iron shot, and Victor Oltrogge's tungsten-tin-bismuth shot have all been approved after testing.

Efforts to phase out the lead shot began in the 1970s and lead shot for waterfowl hunting was banned nationwide in 1991. Waterfowl eat expended lead shot and many die from lead poisoning, as do some predators that eat waterfowl.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, a study in the mid-1990s found that the nationwide ban on the use of lead shot for waterfowl hunting has resulted in an estimated 64 percent reduction in lead poisoning deaths of mallard ducks.

--Beach cleaning: The 20th Annual California Coastal Cleanup Day is Saturday. To participate, volunteers are asked to contact parks and beaches in their community or call the statewide event coordinator, the California Coastal Commission, at (800) COAST-4U or www.coastforyou.org.

Locally, Leo Carrillo State Park will have a coastal cleanup. Directions to the park: From the south, 35 miles west of Santa Monica off Pacific Coast Highway; from the north, 15 miles south of Oxnard. For more information, call [phone].

--Counting scales in salmon season: The California Department of Fish and Game (DFG) predicts a good 2004 ocean salmon season off the California coast. Reports from ports south of Point Arena (Monterey and San Francisco) indicate there was good salmon fishing during the commercial and recreational season openers with varied fishing success afterward, primarily because of high winds and rough seas.

The 2004-05 ocean salmon regulations, ocean abundance outlook and a coho identification poster can be found on the DFG Marine Region Web site at www.dfg.ca.gov/mrd/oceansalmon.html. Anglers may also call the Ocean Salmon Hotline at [phone] to hear the latest California ocean salmon sport regulations or [phone] to speak to a biologist.

Daily News wire services contributed to this report.