Senate passes federal lands bill

WASHINGTON " For the second time this year, the Senate has passed a long-delayed bill to set aside more than 2 million acres in nine states as protected wilderness, including land in Carson City.

The 77-20 vote on Thursday sends the bill to the House, where final legislative approval could come as early as next week.

The Senate first approved the measure in January, but the House rejected it last week amid a partisan dispute over gun rights. The gun issue was not raised during Senate debate.

The legislation " a package of nearly 170 separate bills " would confer the government's highest level of protection on land ranging from California's Sierra Nevada mountain range and Oregon's Mount Hood to Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and parts of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia.

Carson City would get more than 5,000 acres from the Bureau of Land Management on the east side of the city and about 1,000 acres from the U.S. Forest Service on the west side of the city under the Carson City Vital Community Act.

The act would permanently set aside 20,000 acres of BLM land on the east side of the city as open space.

One of the biggest sections of land the bill would give Carson City is 3,500 acres of the Silver Saddle Ranch and areas around the Carson River in southeast Carson. The land will be transferred on the condition that it cannot be developed.

The city would give up about 2,200 acres of high mountains in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest under the bill. This land is closer to Forest Service land.