IB
Union Calendar No. 244
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3955
[Report No. 107–409]
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
MARCH 13, 2002
Mr. ACEVEDO-VILA´ (for himself, Mr. UDALL of Colorado, and Mr. RAHALL)
introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Re-
sources
APRIL 16, 2002
Additional sponsors: Mr. UNDERWOOD and Mrs. CHRISTENSEN
APRIL 16, 2002
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Committee of the Whole
House on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
[Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed in italic]
[For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on March 13, 2002]
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 Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Caribbean National For-
est Wilderness Act of 2002’’.
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 Na-
tional Forest/Luquillo Experimental Forest in the Com-
monwealth of Puerto Rico that were proposed for wilderness
classification in the revised land and resource management
plan for the Caribbean National Forest/Luquillo Experi-
mental Forest, approved April 17, 1997, are hereby des-
ignated 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 Wilder-
ness shall consist of those lands that were proposed for wil-
derness 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 wil-
derness 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 Representa-
tives and the Committee on Energy and Natural Re-
sources of the Senate. The map and boundary descrip-
tion shall be on file and available for public inspec-
tion in the office of the Chief of the Forest Service.
(2) TREATMENT.—The map and boundary de-
scription 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.—Des-
ignation 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 com-
bination of such facilities, when the Secretary deter-
mines that—
(A) such facilities are essential to the sci-
entific research purposes of the Luquillo Experi-
mental Forest; and
(B) the scale and scope of the facility devel-
opment are not detrimental to the wilderness
characteristics of the wilderness area.
(2) Construction and maintenance of nesting
structures, observation blinds, and population moni-
toring platforms for threatened and endangered spe-
cies.
(3) Construction and maintenance of trails to
such facilities as necessary for research purposes and
for the recovery of threatened and endangered species.
Union Calendar No. 244
107TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3955
[Report No. 107–409]
A BILL
To designate certain National Forest System lands
in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico as compo-
nents of the National Wilderness Preservation
System, and for other purposes.
APRIL 16, 2002
Reported with an amendment, committed to the Com-
mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union,
and ordered to be printed