I 
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 Colo-
rado, 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 Representa-
tives 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 wil-
derness 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 Sys-
tem. The designated lands shall be known as the El Toro 
Wilderness. 
(b) WILDERNESS BOUNDARIES.—The El Toro Wil-
derness 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 Agri-
culture 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 lo-
cated at least 600 feet west of Highway PR 191 from Kil-
ometer 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 Wil-
derness and submit the map and boundary descrip-
tion 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 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 con-
siders 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 such facilities are essential to the sci-
entific research purposes of the Luquillo Experi-
mental Forest. 
(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.
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