New England Wilderness Act of 2006

NEW ENGLAND WILDERNESS ACT OF 2006 -- (House of Representatives - November 15, 2006)

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Mr. BRADLEY of New Hampshire. Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank the leadership of the Resources Committee on both sides of the aisle, as well as the leadership on both sides of the aisle in the House, for allowing myself, Congressman Bass and Congressman Sanders to have another opportunity to debate this bill today.

What we have before us is a compromise in true New England fashion, with both States' delegations and Governors of both States having worked together to bring before the House a consensus package that represents the best interests of my colleague's State of Vermont and the best interests of my State of New Hampshire.

As someone who is an avid hiker and someone who will have a little bit more time now to hike, I can attest to all Members of the House, this wilderness designation makes sense for New Hampshire. I have hiked in both regions of the proposed wilderness designation. They are worthy of this additional protection of wilderness designation.

In the case of New Hampshire, myself and Congressman Bass, Senator Gregg and Senator Sununu, the sponsors of this measure, have worked extensively with all sides that were interested in this legislation, both environmental groups, logging interests, snowmobiling groups to make sure that we had a plan that mirrored the interests of Tom Wagner, who is the administrator of the White Mountain National Forest, and his very capable group of people that proposed the White Mountain National Forest plan and the wilderness designation.

As a side note, the White Mountain National Forest plan, despite all the comments that came in after the plan was published, in particular comments about wilderness designation, was not challenged in court by any of the various interests, which is a tribute to how hard New Hampshire interests worked on the compromise that you see before you today.

So, as somebody who has spent extensive time hiking in the White Mountain National Forest, including in these two proposed wilderness designations, the Sandwich designation, as well as the Wild River designation, I thank again my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for allowing this bill to come forward. I thank the leadership on both sides for allowing this bill to come forward. It is truly going to protect both the Green Mountain National Forest and the White Mountain National Forest, and I would welcome all of you to come join me in hiking in these two wilderness designations once they have been signed into law.

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