§460uuu Mount Hood National Recreation Area

Summary

Creates the Mount Hood National Recreation Area inside Mount Hood National Forest to protect recreation, nature, scenery, cultural sites, water, and fish and wildlife. The area covers about 34,550 acres as shown on maps dated February 2007. As soon as practicable after March 30, 2009, the Secretary must file a map and legal description with the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Natural Resources. That filing will count the same as if the map and description were printed in the law, but the Secretary may fix typing errors. The filed map and description must be kept on file and open to the public in Forest Service offices. The Secretary must manage the area under the rules that govern the National Forest System and only allow uses that match the protection goals. Any wilderness inside the area must be run under the Wilderness Act. Timber cutting is allowed only to improve forest health (while keeping big trees when appropriate), help threatened or endangered species, reduce wildfire risk, if it is incidental to approved management, or for very small personal or administrative use that does not harm the area’s purposes. New or temporary roads are banned except for emergencies (like flood or fire), U.S. environmental cleanup, to honor legal or treaty rights, to stop serious damage from an existing road, or to fix a dangerous road. Subject to valid existing rights, federal land in the area is withdrawn from public land claims, mining location, and mineral or geothermal leasing. About 130 acres shown as BLM land on the Shellrock Mountain map dated February 2007 are transferred from the Bureau of Land Management to the Forest Service.