A proposal by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would create a national monument of 940,000 acres along the Route 66 corridor in California’s Mojave Desert is being examined by a U.S. Senate panel, according to the Desert Dispatch of Barstow.
According to the newspaper:
The California Desert Protection Act of 2010 went before the Energy and Natural Resources Committee May 20 and will have to be debated and rewritten before it goes before the entire senate, said Laurel Williams, Southern California’s deputy conservation director for the California Wilderness Coalition, which is made up of conservation groups that support the bill.
At the hearing, the committee took testimony in support of the bill from conservation groups and is waiting on written comments from the Bureau of Land Management, the Department of Defense and the U.S. Forest Service, said David Lamfrom, program manager for the National Parks Conservation Association.
The article also said more than 60 officials, cities and business leaders have endorsed the proposal, including Barstow’s mayor.
A copy of the initial proposal is here, although it will undoubtedly change somewhat as it goes through the legislative sausage-grinder.