Release of Bodie Wilderness Study Area, Mono County, California

(a)

Findings

Congress finds the following: (1)The Bodie Wilderness Study Area, consisting of 16,482 acres of land, is located in northeastern Mono County, California, approximately nine miles east of Bridgeport, California. (2)In 1990, the Bureau of Land Management issued its California Statewide Wilderness Study Report, containing its recommendations concerning the Bodie Wilderness Study Area and others, as required by section 603 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1782). (3)The Bureau of Land Management reviewed the environmental impact statements covering the Bodie Wilderness Study Area and in its 1990 report recommended the Bodie Wilderness Study area as nonsuitable for wilderness. (4)The Bureau of Land Management reached its decision of no wilderness for the Bodie Wilderness Study Area because the area’s potential for mineral occurrences and motorized recreation needs outweighs the area’s wilderness values, and secondarily because the area would be difficult to manage as wilderness. (5)The Bureau of Land Management based its recommendation on the following findings contained in the environmental impact statement: (A)The area contains several hundred mining claims, many of which may be grandfathered. (B)Most of the area contains moderate to high metallic mineral potential for gold, silver, or mercury, or for geothermal resources. (C)The area sustains and provides opportunities for motorized recreation. (D)The highly irregular configuration of the area as well as the existence of two cherry-stemmed roads leading to private inholdings and mining claims would inhibit complete and effective management as wilderness. (6)For the purposes of section 603 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1782), the Bodie Wilderness Study Area has been adequately studied for wilderness. (7)Approximately 96 percent of the land in Mono County, California, is owned or controlled by the Federal Government. (8)Unemployment in Mono County, California, is approximately 10 percent. (9)Releasing the Bodie Wilderness Study Area and opening the wilderness study area for economic development could create hundreds of good-paying jobs and annual tax revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars in an economically depressed area. (b)

Release of Wilderness Study Area

The Bodie Wilderness Study Area is no longer subject to the requirements of section 603(c) of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1782(c)) or section 2002 of the Omnibus Public Land Management Act of 2009 (Public Law 111–11; 16 U.S.C. 7202). (c)

Effect of release

The lands within the Bodie Wilderness Study Area, as released by subsection (b), shall return to multiple use management as set forth in the applicable resource management plan prepared under section 202 of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43 U.S.C. 1712) immediately, without any further action by the Bureau of Land Management.