The Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining held a legislative hearing to discuss several pending bills before the committee, including Senator Feinstein’s “California Desert Conservation and Recreation Act of 2015” (S 414). Feinstein’s bill would amend and update the historic California Desert Protection Act of 1994, and is designed to protect additional land and help manage California’s desert resources by carefully balancing conservation, recreation and renewable energy development.
The legislation received mixed reviews at the hearing. Both the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service testified in support of the legislation. Feinstein’s bill will now wait to be marked up in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.