HR2420-119

What This Bill Does

The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act is a large public-lands conservation bill for the Northern Rockies Bioregion. It designates wilderness additions and new wilderness components across the Greater Glacier/Northern Continental Divide, Greater Yellowstone, Greater Salmon/Selway, Greater Cabinet-Yaak-Selkirk, Greater Hells Canyon, Islands in the Sky, and biological connecting corridor landscapes. It directs administration under the Wilderness Act subject to valid existing rights, reserves sufficient federal water rights for wilderness purposes with a priority date of enactment, and requires Agriculture, Interior, and other federal officers to protect those rights in stream adjudications. It requires the Secretaries to accept donated grazing permits and permanently end grazing on donated allotments or portions. It designates about 2.9 million acres of federal land as biological connecting corridors for wildlife connectivity while protecting private landowners from compulsory compliance and allowing willing cooperative agreements, trades, and acquisitions. It exempts specified highways and roads. It designates about 1.023 million acres as wildland recovery areas and requires recovery plans to restore native vegetation, reduce invasive species, stabilize soils, improve water quality, remove fish barriers, and restore roadless and wild conditions. It requires an independent-scientist implementation report, an interagency team with public and private participants, GIS monitoring using satellite data, roadless land evaluation with temporary development prohibitions after evaluation, FOIA confidentiality for Tribal sacred-site and cultural information, possible Indian Self-Determination Act use, nonexclusive Tribal access for traditional cultural and religious purposes, temporary closures for private religious activity, and preservation of existing federal water rights.

Who Benefits and How

Wildlife conservation organizations benefit from wilderness designations, biological corridors, recovery areas, and roadless land evaluation across the Northern Rockies. Threatened species habitat benefits because the bill protects core ecosystems, migration connectivity, water quality, and restoration areas. Tribal governments benefit from confidentiality for sacred-site information, nonexclusive cultural access, temporary closure authority, and possible self-determination agreements. Backcountry recreation users benefit from added National Wilderness Preservation System lands and protected wildland character. Federal land managers benefit from statutory maps, legal descriptions, management rules, cooperative-agreement authority, and monitoring systems. Independent scientists benefit from a formal role in implementation reports and roadless land evaluations.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Forest Service land managers must administer new wilderness, corridors, recovery areas, water rights, grazing donations, and roadless evaluations. BLM field offices must manage designated public lands, corridor protections, land trades, acquisitions, and restoration obligations. Grazing permit holders lose grazing authorization if they donate permits or lease portions within protected areas. Timber, mining, oil, gas, roadbuilding, and ski-resort developers face development limits on designated wilderness, recovery, and evaluated roadless lands. Private landowners near corridors may face more federal negotiation interest, though the bill bars compulsory private-land compliance. Agriculture and Interior Secretaries must coordinate reports, GIS monitoring, water-right claims, cooperative agreements, and Tribal access protections.

Key Provisions

• Designates wilderness additions across Greater Glacier, Greater Yellowstone, Greater Salmon/Selway, Cabinet-Yaak-Selkirk, Hells Canyon, Islands in the Sky, and corridor landscapes.
• Designates about 2.9 million acres of federal land as biological connecting corridors while excluding private land from compulsory compliance.
• Designates about 1.023 million acres as wildland recovery areas and requires restoration plans within three years.
• Reserves federal water rights sufficient for wilderness purposes and preserves existing federal water rights.
• Requires acceptance and termination of donated grazing permits or leases within wilderness, corridors, or recovery areas.
• Creates independent-scientist reporting, an interagency monitoring team, satellite-based GIS monitoring, and roadless land evaluation.
• Protects confidential Tribal sacred-site information from FOIA and preserves Tribal cultural and religious access to protected areas.