Following years of workshops, study sessions, public meetings and discussions with stakeholders from across the private and public sector, U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) and U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) have teamed up to reintroduce a bill aimed at protecting and enhancing the natural resources in northwest California.

The pair introduced the Northwest California Wilderness, Recreation and Working Forests Act on Wednesday, which will provide funding for fire resilience projects, trail and visitor center improvements and the restoration of property fouled by illegal marijuana trespass grows.

“We have an abundance of amazing public lands that sustain not only our environmental values, we also care about the resources economy and the outdoor recreation economy. It’s big business in our part of the world,” Huffman told the Times-Standard on Wednesday. “Managing these public lands responsibly and carefully is really about our future.”

Among the provisions of the bill that have the greatest impact in Humboldt County are the focus on the trespass grows that pollute and contaminate forestlands and lead to general environmental degradation. The measure will also designate 730,000 acres of the South Fork of the Trinity River, Mad River and North Fork Eel as a restoration area.

“I think one of the big takeaways from this is that you rarely see a bill with major designations for wilderness areas and wild and scenic rivers,” Huffman said, adding that fuel reductions to reduce the impact and severity of wildfires is also included along with funding for forest restoration projects in previously logged areas.

“I feel this is an investment in the future and it’s not limited to designating forestlands; we are actively working for tourism and recreation,” Huffman said, adding that the number of stakeholders who provided input was varied and across a broad spectrum of interests.

Harris stressed the bill was about protecting natural resources.

“Under this administration, California’s beautiful public lands and its outdoor economy are under direct threat, and we must stand up against this active effort to chip away at vital environmental protections,” she said in a prepared statement. “Restoring and expanding protections for our public lands means protecting Americans’ right to clean air and clean water and providing everybody the opportunity to explore and enjoy the outdoors.”

Tourism is a key industry in Humboldt County and for Aaron Ostrom, co-owner of Pacific Outfitters, any legislation that leads to cleaner and more available public spaces is more than welcome.

“The better maintained these properties are, the more they will be used,” Ostrom said Wednesday. “You look at our fishing industry, our cannabis industry and the only other thing we have going for us is tourism. People come here for our rivers and coastline and redwoods and the more we encourage that use, the better we can keep our tourism economy going.”

Ostrom pointed out the fact that Pacific Outfitters sponsors a team of volunteers which regularly goes out onto public lands to clean up. It not only helps the environment, it helps those in the business of guiding people to the beauty the county has to offer.

“We’re in that business and that’s part of the reason we sponsor the PacOut Green Team,” Ostrom said. “We live in a literally majestic place so we have got to keep it clean. We do 60-minute cleanups and we need to keep our living room clean.”

Ostrom also serves as a board member on the Eureka-Humboldt Visitors Bureau and he’s a liaison between that organization and the outdoor recreation industry in the county. Clean waterways, usable hiking trails and areas for hunting and fishing are key to the local economy according to Ostrom.

“I know Humboldt County gets about 200,000 visitors per year and 94 percent have never been here before,” Ostrom said. “We have to make a lot of first impressions and we have to make them positive. It’s the only stable industry we’ve got right now.”

The crackdown on illegal marijuana grows is another key provision in the bill and for the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, which coordinates with state and federal agencies to address the grow sites, more federal support can only help.

“We are grateful to Rep. Huffman and Sen. Harris that this legislation includes the clean up of trespass marijuana grows on our public lands,” said Sheriff William Honsal in a news release announcing the legislation. “Not only are these trespass grows a public safety issue, but cleaning them up is a tremendous benefit to down-stream communities who are impacted by toxic runoff of this illegal activity. Eradicating and cleaning up these trespass grows on federally managed lands helps all of us.”

For more information about the legislation and the areas that will be impacted, go to https://huffman.house.gov/rep-huffman-introduces-northwest-california-wilderness-recreation-and-working-forests-act

Dan Squier can be reached at 707-441-0528.