[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.
                                 <all>