[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1723 Introduced in House (IH)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. R. 1723
To designate certain National Forest System lands in the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico as components of the National Wilderness Preservation
System, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 10, 2003
Mr. Acevedo-Vila (for himself, Mr. Rahall, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Pallone,
Mr. Case, Mr. Rodriguez, Mr. Gutierrez, Mr. Reyes, Mr. Rangel, Mrs.
Christensen, Ms. Bordallo, Mr. Payne, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Mr.
Becerra, and Mrs. Napolitano) introduced the following bill; which was
referred to the Committee on Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To designate certain National Forest System lands in the Commonwealth
of Puerto Rico as components of the National Wilderness Preservation
System, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Caribbean National Forest Act of
2003''.
SEC. 2. WILDERNESS DESIGNATION, CARIBBEAN NATIONAL FOREST, PUERTO RICO.
(a) El Toro Wilderness.--In furtherance of the purposes of the
Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 113 et seq.), the approximately 10,000 acres
of land in the Caribbean National Forest/Luquillo Experimental Forest
in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico that were proposed for wilderness
classification in the revised land and resource management plan for the
Caribbean National Forest/Luquillo Experimental Forest, approved April
17, 1997, are hereby designated as wilderness and, therefore, as a
component of the National Wilderness Preservation System. The
designated lands shall be known as the El Toro Wilderness.
(b) Wilderness Boundaries.--The El Toro Wilderness shall consist of
those lands that were proposed for wilderness classification in the
management plan referred to in subsection (a), except that the
Secretary of Agriculture shall locate the boundaries of the wilderness
area so that existing municipal water intakes will not be within the
wilderness boundaries and the boundaries shall be located at least 600
feet west of Highway PR 191 from Kilometer 6.5 to Kilometer 12.0.
(c) Map and Description.--
(1) Preparation and submission.--As soon as practicable
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of
Agriculture shall prepare a map and a boundary description of
the El Toro Wilderness and submit the map and boundary
description to the Committee on Resources of the House of
Representatives and the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources of the Senate. The map and boundary description shall
be on file and available for public inspection in the office of
the Chief of the Forest Service.
(2) Treatment.--The map and boundary description prepared
under paragraph (1) shall have the same force and effect as if
included in this Act. The Secretary may correct clerical and
typographical errors in the map and description.
(d) Administration.--Subject to valid existing rights, the
Secretary of Agriculture shall administer the El Toro Wilderness in
accordance with the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.) and this
Act. With respect to the El Toro Wilderness, any reference in the
Wilderness Act to the effective date of the Wilderness Act shall be
deemed to be a reference to the date of the enactment of this Act.
(e) Special Management Considerations.--Designation of the El Toro
Wilderness, and the applicability of the Wilderness Act to the
wilderness area, shall not be construed to prevent any of the following
activities, subject to such conditions as the Secretary of Agriculture
considers desirable, within the boundaries of the wilderness area:
(1) Installation and maintenance of hydrologic,
meteorological, climatological, or atmospheric data collection
and transmission facilities, or any combination of such
facilities, when the Secretary determines that such facilities
are essential to the scientific research purposes of the
Luquillo Experimental Forest.
(2) Construction and maintenance of nesting structures,
observation blinds, and population monitoring platforms for
threatened and endangered species.
(3) Construction and maintenance of trails to such
facilities as necessary for research purposes and for the
recovery of threatened and endangered species.
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