§460uuu Mount Hood National Recreation Area

Summary

Creates the Mount Hood National Recreation Area inside Mount Hood National Forest to protect recreation, plants and animals, scenery, culture, watersheds, and wildlife. It covers about 34,550 acres shown on three maps dated February 2007. The Secretary must, as soon as possible after March 30, 2009, file a map and legal description with the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and the House Committee on Natural Resources. Those files have the same legal effect as if printed in the law, and the Secretary may fix typos. The maps must also be kept for the public at Forest Service offices. The Secretary must run the area under National Forest rules and only allow uses that match the protection goals. Any wilderness inside the area follows the Wilderness Act. Timber cutting is allowed only to improve forest health (while keeping large trees), help threatened species, reduce unusual wildfire risk, when it is part of an approved management action, or for very small personal or administrative use that won’t harm the area. No new or temporary roads may be built except for narrow emergencies, cleanup, to honor legal or treaty rights, to stop 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 Subject to valid existing rights, federal land in the area is withdrawn from public land, mining, and mineral or geothermal leasing laws. About 130 acres shown as “BLM Lands” on the February 2007 Shellrock Mountain map are transferred from the Bureau of Land Management to the Forest Service.