House Bill 1303 - Cerro de la Olla Wilderness Establishment Act

Cerro de la Olla Wilderness Establishment Act

This bill designates specified federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management in Taos County, New Mexico, comprising 12,898 acres in the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument, to be known as the Cerro de la Olla Wilderness.

The Department of the Interior shall enter into a cooperative agreement with New Mexico that specifies, subject to certain prohibition provisions under the Wilderness Act, the terms and conditions under which wildlife management activities in the wilderness may be carried out.

Subject to such agreement and such prohibition provisions, Interior may authorize the maintenance of any existing structure or facility for wildlife water development projects (including guzzlers) in the wilderness, if

• the structure or facility would enhance wilderness values by promoting healthy, viable, and more naturally distributed wildlife populations; and
• the visual impacts of the structure or facility on the wilderness can reasonably be minimized.

The bill modifies the boundary of the monument.