Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
(a) SHORT TITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 
‘‘National Forest Ecosystem Protection Act of 2002’’. 
(b) TABLE OF CONTENTS.—The table of contents for 
this Act is as follows:
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. National Forest ecosystem protection program. 
Sec. 3. Special management considerations. 
Sec. 4. Land acquisition. 
Sec. 5. Permanent phase out of commercial grazing. 
Sec. 6. Forest plan revision assessments. 
Sec. 7. Original Ecosystem Protection Areas. 
Sec. 8. Delineation of primitive areas on eastern National Forest System lands. 
Sec. 9. Delineation of primitive areas on western National Forest System lands. 
Sec. 10. Compatible management of adjacent Department of the Interior lands. 
Sec. 11. Development of State ecosystem protection areas. 
Sec. 12. Reporting requirements. 
Sec. 13. Authorization of appropriations.
SEC. 2. NATIONAL FOREST ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION PRO-
GRAM. 
(a) DECLARATION OF POLICY.—In order to assure 
that the American people have large areas of land in 
healthy natural condition throughout the country, which 
lands maximize wildland recreational opportunities for 
people, maximize habitat protection for native wildlife and 
natural plant communities, and contribute to a preserva-
tion of water for use by downstream metropolitan commu-
nities and other users, it is hereby declared to be the policy 
of Congress to secure for present and future generations
of Americans the enduring resource of protected large wild 
lands. 
(c) ESTABLISHMENT.—To help achieve the policy de-
clared in subsection (a), there is hereby established a Na-
tional Forest Ecosystem Protection Program to be com-
posed of lands within existing units of the National Forest 
System that contain one or more large existing wilderness 
areas as a core area and a primitive area extending out-
ward therefrom, both of which will be designated as Eco-
system Protection Areas by this Act or a subsequent Act 
of Congress. 
SEC. 3. SPECIAL MANAGEMENT CONSIDERATIONS. 
(a) WILDERNESS AREA MANAGEMENT.—Within the 
Ecosystem Protection Areas, the Secretary of Agriculture, 
acting through the Forest Service (in this Act referred to 
as the ‘‘Secretary’’), shall manage the wilderness areas as 
provided by the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131 et seq.) 
and other applicable laws, except that commercial grazing 
shall be eliminated therein. 
(b) PRIMITIVE AREA MANAGEMENT.—Within the 
Ecosystem Protection Areas, the Secretary shall manage 
the primitive areas so that primitive recreation and habi-
tat for wildlife will be the paramount considerations and 
that all other multiple use activities will only be used to
reinforce the paramount considerations. Commercial graz-
ing shall be eliminated therein. 
(c) PROTECTION
AND
RESTORATION.—The Sec-
retary, in consultation with State wildlife officials and 
through the use of a public participation process, shall 
promote the reestablishment or protection of as many ani-
mal and plant species native to the designated Ecosystem 
Protection Areas as practical. 
SEC. 4. LAND ACQUISITION. 
(a) LAND ACQUISITION AUTHORITY.—The Secretary 
shall strive to acquire all private lands, all mineral rights 
not owned by the United States, and all other interests 
in lands not owned by the United States, on a willing-
seller/willing-buyer basis, located within any wilderness 
area named in this Act and within the primitive areas de-
lineated pursuant to this Act. 
(b) EFFECT OF ACQUISITION.—For each acre of land 
acquired by the Secretary under this section, a payment 
in lieu of taxes shall be made to the county in which the 
property is located equal to $1.50 per acre per year, plus 
an increase every year based on the percentage change in 
the Consumer Price Index. For these newly acquired 
acres, no other payment shall be made to the county based 
on any other Federal law.
SEC. 5. PERMANENT PHASE OUT OF COMMERCIAL GRAZ-
ING. 
(a) GRAZING PHASE OUT TIMETABLE.—The Sec-
retary shall provide for the elimination of commercial 
grazing on all allotments located wholly or partially in wil-
derness areas or primitive areas within the Ecosystem 
Protection Areas. Within allotments located wholly within 
the core wilderness areas, grazing shall be eliminated in 
10 years. Within allotments having more than 50 percent, 
but less than 100 percent, of their area in core wilderness 
areas, grazing shall be eliminated in 12 years. Within al-
lotments having 50 percent or less of their area in core 
wilderness areas, including those allotments located wholly 
in a primitive area east of the 104th meridian, grazing 
shall be eliminated in 14 years. 
(b) PUBLIC NOTIFICATION.—In the case of Eco-
system Protection Areas located west of the 104th merid-
ian, the Secretary shall notify every allottee and allotment 
manager whose allotment is wholly or partially within a 
core wilderness area that the allotment will become graz-
ing-free within the number of years provided in subsection 
(a). The notification shall include the options available to 
the person under this section. The names and areas of 
the allotments shall be printed in the local newspapers. 
Each of these steps shall be completed within one year 
after the date of the enactment of this Act.
(c) ASSISTANCE.—In designated Ecosystem Protec-
tion Areas, the Secretary—
(1) shall make an economic transition payment 
to an allotee when grazing is phased out; 
(2) shall make an additional early-out payment 
to a willing allotee for the early permanent retire-
ment of the remaining years of grazing privileges be-
fore the applicable date specified in subsection (a); 
(3) shall purchase the base property, if so re-
quested by the owner, of any such allotment from a 
willing seller, if it is located within the boundaries 
of a unit of the National Forest System; 
(4) shall make funds available to the Bureau of 
Land Management as an economic transition pay-
ment for the permanent phase out of grazing on any 
Bureau of Land Management winter allotment af-
fected by a summer allotment impacted by this Act, 
if so requested by the allotee; 
(5) may grant a one year extension for extenu-
ating circumstances to the number of years indicated 
in subsection (a) for the allotment to become grazing 
free, if the allotee applies for the extension from one 
year to 6 months before the date otherwise applica-
ble under subsection (a);
(6) may allocate any agency funds for these 
purposes; and 
(7) may attempt to acquire any property au-
thorized for purchase by this Act, including the 
above described base properties and any mineral 
rights, and to retire the grazing privileges early, in 
cooperation with land trusts or other private parties 
dedicated to the preservation of open space. 
(d) GRAZING PHASE OUT
ON WINTER ALLOT-
MENTS.—The Bureau of Land Management shall perma-
nently phase out grazing on any winter allotment covered 
by subsection (c)(4). 
(e) RELATION TO OTHER LAWS.—Nothing in this 
Act shall be construed to affect the Government’s author-
ity to otherwise modify or terminate grazing permits. 
(f) NO PROPERTY RIGHT CREATED.—Payments dis-
tributed according to this section shall not create a prop-
erty right in grazing permit holders. 
(g) TREATMENT OF GRAZING REVENUES.—For each 
grazing allotment affected by this section, the average an-
nual revenues from grazing shall be computed for the 
three full fiscal years before the date of the enactment 
of this Act. The number so computed shall be utilized for 
every year hereafter as a component for any Federal pro-
gram that provides for payments in lieu of taxes to units
of local government, based on revenues received by the 
Secretary, irrespective of the absence of revenues from 
that allotment once grazing is phased out. 
SEC. 6. FOREST PLAN REVISION ASSESSMENTS. 
(a) ASSESSMENTS REQUIRED.—In any Ecosystem 
Protection Area located east of the 104th meridian in the 
contiguous 48 States, the Secretary shall include the fol-
lowing assessments as part of the first round of Forest 
Service land and resource management plan revisions for 
each of these areas made after the date of the enactment 
of this Act: 
(1) An assessment of expanding the designated 
wilderness area or creating new wilderness areas in 
all the primitive areas created by this Act. 
(2) An assessment of the ecological benefit to 
be derived from closing any unimproved roads bi-
secting any such areas within encircling improved 
roads and from closing any improved roads cherry 
stemmed into those areas. 
(3) An assessment of the appropriate manage-
ment practices most likely to improve habitat for key 
species in any of the above described areas, if those 
areas are not to be proposed to Congress as new wil-
derness areas.
(b) PUBLIC PARTICIPATION.—Each assessment re-
quired by this section shall utilize all the procedures de-
signed to provide public input into the Forest Service plan-
ning process. 
SEC. 7. ORIGINAL ECOSYSTEM PROTECTION AREAS. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—The original Ecosystem Protec-
tion Areas include one or more of the largest existing For-
est Service wilderness areas in the following States, includ-
ing any adjacent wilderness areas or wilderness areas sep-
arated by no more than a road corridor, and surrounding 
primitive areas delineated as provided in section 8 or 9. 
(b) 
DESIGNATION.—The 
Ecosystem 
Protection 
Areas, and the wilderness area forming the their core, are 
as follows: 
(1) Alabama: 
(A) Sipsey. 
(2) Alaska: 
(A) Misty Fiords. 
(3) Arizona: 
(A) Mazatzal. 
(B) Blue Range (also in New Mexico), in-
cluding the Blue Range Primitive Area. 
(C) Chiricahua. 
(4) Arkansas: 
(A) Hurricane Creek.
(B) Upper Kiamichi (also in Oklahoma). 
(5) California: 
(A) High Sierra, including John Muir, 
Ansel Adams, Golden Trout, Monarch, Dinkey 
Lakes, South Sierra, Dome Land, Hoover and 
Emigrant. 
(B) Trinity Alps. 
(6) Colorado: 
(A) Weminuche. 
(B) West Elk. 
(C) South San Juan. 
(7) Florida: 
(A) Big Gum Swamp. 
(B) Bradwell Bay. 
(8) Georgia: 
(A) Cohutta (also in Tennessee). 
(B) Southern Nantahala (also in North 
Carolina). 
(9) Idaho: 
(A) Central Idaho Massif, including Frank 
Church-River of No Return, Selway–Bitterroot 
(also in Montana), and Gospel Hump. 
(B) Hells Canyon (also in Oregon). 
(10) Indiana: 
(A) Charles C. Deam.
(11) Kentucky: 
(A) Clifty. 
(12) Maine: 
(A) Caribou-Speckled Mountain. 
(13) Michigan: 
(A) Sylvania. 
(14) Minnesota: 
(A) Boundary Waters Canoe Area. 
(15) Missouri: 
(A) Irish. 
(16) Montana: 
(A) Montana Rockies, including Bob Mar-
shal, Great Bear, and Scapegoat. 
(B) 
Central 
Idaho 
Massif, 
including 
Selway-Bitterroot (also in Idaho). 
(C) Yellowstone, including Lee Metcalf and 
Absaroka-Beartooth (also in Wyoming). 
(17) Nevada: 
(A) Arc Dome. 
(18) New Hampshire: 
(A) Pemiwegasset. 
(B) Presidential Range-Dry River. 
(C) Sandwich Range. 
(19) New Mexico: 
(A) Gila including Gila and Aldo Leopold.