S. 1531: Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act

This bill designates specified public lands in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming as wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, wildland recovery areas, and biological connecting corridors.

The Department of the Interior and the Forest Service must jointly establish an interagency team, containing an equal number of participants from the public and private sectors, to monitor, evaluate, and make recommendations regarding the results of the bill. The team must also develop a geographic information system for monitoring the Northern Rockies Bioregion and assess the potential for facilitating wildlife movement across or under major highways and rail lines within the biological corridors established by the bill.

The bill provides for the temporary closure to the general public of specific portions of protected areas, at the request of an Indian tribe, to protect the privacy of a religious activity or cultural use by an Indian.

Written by the Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress.