[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2806 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2806


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 27, 2009

   Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 AN ACT


 
 To authorize the Secretary of the Interior to adjust the boundary of 
 the Stephen Mather Wilderness and the North Cascades National Park in 
order to allow the rebuilding of a road outside of the floodplain while 
   ensuring that there is no net loss of acreage to the Park or the 
                  Wilderness, 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. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds as follows:
            (1) In 1988, 93 percent of the North Cascades National Park 
        Complex was designated the Stephen Mather Wilderness.
            (2) A road corridor was deliberately excluded from the 
        wilderness designation to provide for the continued use and 
        maintenance of the upper Stehekin Valley Road.
            (3) The upper Stehekin Valley Road provides access to 
        Stephen Mather Wilderness trailheads and North Cascades 
        National Park from the Lake Chelan National Recreation Area.
            (4) Record flooding in 1995 and again in 2003 caused severe 
        damage to the upper Stehekin Valley Road and led to the closure 
        of a 9.9-mile section of the road between Car Wash Falls and 
        Cottonwood Camp.
            (5) The National Park Service currently does not have the 
        flexibility to rebuild the upper Stehekin Valley Road away from 
        the Stehekin River due to the current location of the non-
        wilderness road corridor provided by Congress in 1988.
            (6) It is a high priority that the people of the United 
        States, including families, the disabled, and the elderly, have 
        reasonable access to the National Parks system and their public 
        lands.
            (7) The 1995 Lake Chelan National Recreation Area General 
        Management Plan calls for retaining vehicle access to 
        Cottonwood Camp.
            (8) Tourism associated with the North Cascades National 
        Park Complex is an important part of the economy for rural 
        communities in the area.
            (9) Additional management flexibility would allow the 
        National Park Service to consider retention of the upper 
        Stehekin Valley Road in a manner that provides for no net loss 
        of wilderness.

SEC. 2. AUTHORIZATION FOR BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENTS.

    The Washington Park Wilderness Act of 1988 (Public Law 100-668) is 
amended by inserting after section 206 the following:

``SEC. 207. BOUNDARY ADJUSTMENTS FOR ROAD.

    ``(a) In General.--The Secretary may adjust the boundaries of the 
North Cascades National Park and the Stephen Mather Wilderness in order 
to provide a corridor of not more than 100 feet in width along which 
the Stehekin Valley Road may be rebuilt--
            ``(1) outside of the floodplain between milepost 12.9 and 
        milepost 22.8;
            ``(2) within one mile of the route, on the date of the 
        enactment of this section, of the Stehekin Valley Road;
            ``(3) within the boundaries of the North Cascades National 
        Park; and
            ``(4) outside of the boundaries of the Stephen Mather 
        Wilderness.
    ``(b) No Net Loss of Lands.--
            ``(1) In general.--The boundary adjustments made under this 
        section shall be such that equal amounts of federally owned 
        acreage are exchanged between the Stephen Mather Wilderness and 
        the North Cascades National Park, resulting in no net loss of 
        acreage to either the Stephen Mather Wilderness or the North 
        Cascades National Park.
            ``(2) Stehekin valley road lands.--The newly designated 
        wilderness shall include the lands along the route of the 
        Stehekin Valley Road that are replaced by the reconstruction.
            ``(3) Equalization of land.--If the lands described in 
        paragraph (2) contain fewer acres than the corridor described 
        in subsection (a), the Secretary may designate additional 
        Federal lands in the North Cascades National Park as 
        wilderness, but such designation may not exceed the amount 
        needed to equalize the exchange and these additional lands must 
        be selected from lands that qualify as wilderness under section 
        2(c) of the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1131(c)).
    ``(c) No Sale or Acquisition Authorized.--Nothing in this Act 
authorizes the sale or acquisition of any land or interest in land.
    ``(d) No Priority Required.--Nothing in this Act shall be construed 
as requiring the Secretary to give this project precedence over the 
construction or repair of other similarly damaged roads in units of the 
National Park System.''.

            Passed the House of Representatives October 26, 2009.

            Attest:

                                            LORRAINE C. MILLER,

                                                                 Clerk.