Conservationists say U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer's plan to designate 2.4 million acres of California mountains as wilderness -- including areas in San Diego and Riverside counties -- would preserve a back-country treasure for future generations.

But off-road enthusiasts say Boxer's new wilderness bill would lock up that treasure forever so that only a privileged few could use it.

California already has one of the nation's most extensive wilderness systems, one that covers more than 14 million acres or 13 percent of its sun-splashed lands.

Local examples include the 16,000-acre Agua Tibia Wilderness just north of Palomar Mountain along the San Diego-Riverside county line, where groves of conifers in shaded canyons shelter rare Mexican spotted owls. Another example is the 40,000-acre San Mateo Canyon Wilderness northwest of Temecula, which harbors the headwaters of one of Southern California's last free-flowing rivers.

And now, at the urging of conservation groups, Boxer is proposing to boost the state's inventory of pristine, protected lands.

While the biggest additions would be in the Angeles and Los Padres forests, and in the Sierra Nevada, well to the north, some would come locally. For example, Boxer's newly introduced legislation -- the California Wild Heritage Act of 2007 or Senate Bill 493 -- targets Eagle Peak, a chaparral-dominated landscape of canyons and waterfalls east of Ramona for a new area and aims to increase the size of the Agua Tibia wilderness near Temecula.

The wilderness expansion is necessary, said Cindy Buxton of Imperial Beach, a member of the San Diego County Chapter of the Sierra Club and group expert on the Eagle Peak proposal.

"We have a lot of amazing environments in this county," Buxton said. "We have the ocean, we have chaparral, we have desert, we have oak woodlands and we even have some alpine coniferous forests."

The Boxer bill would help ensure that all the different types of landscapes are preserved, she said.

"We're trying to leave something for the next few generations," said Oceanside resident Dave Voss, co-chairman of the local Sierra Club's forest and wilderness committee.

Padlocking the great outdoors

But Meg Grossglass, a spokeswoman for the Bakersfield-based Off-Road Business Association who resides in the French Valley community near Temecula, said enough land has been preserved already, and the bill would have the effect of putting a padlock on places people would otherwise visit. That, she said, is because many prefer not to recreate on foot or horseback, the only permitted methods of travel in most wilderness areas.

"I truly believe that wilderness keeps families away from the great outdoors," Grossglass said. "We should be encouraging people to get away from all the technology that keeps them in the house and go visit the outdoors."

Bill Dart, director of land use for the Off-Road Business Association, said the legislation "takes a swipe at the folks who actually use public lands and locks up more land." Dart said he is mostly concerned with proposed wilderness areas in the Sierra Nevada, some of which would close places now open to off-roaders.

Locally, the legislation would add 2,000 acres to the Agua Tibia Wilderness, 214 acres to the 14,000-acre Pine Creek Wilderness in eastern San Diego County and 21,000 acres to existing wilderness lands in the heavily forested San Jacinto Mountains of western Riverside County, near Idyllwild.

Meanwhile, an entirely new wilderness area is proposed for North San Diego County. Composed of more than 24,000 acres, the proposed Eagle Peak Wilderness takes in the mountain by the same name, the San Diego River and Cedar Creek gorges and several scenic cascades, among them Mildred Falls (the county's highest), Cedar Creek Falls and Three Sisters.

As far as Buxton is concerned, this is the best time of the year to visit the area.

"It's green. The flowers are out. There's water that runs over beautiful boulders, and waterfalls and punch bowl," she said. "It's unbelievably pristine and untouched. A lot of people think it is the best place on earth."

An outdoor paradise

An hour's drive from much of North County, Eagle Peak is popular with a wide range of recreation seekers.

"It's an outdoor sportsman's paradise," said John Elliott of Descanso.

It is particularly popular with rock climbers, who say Eagle Peak is one of the most challenging and rewarding technical climbs in San Diego County.

The U.S. Forest Service is studying whether to close the peak to climbing during the spring nesting season of the golden eagles, but bill supporters said the legislation won't affect that decision one way or another. Climbing is generally permitted in wilderness areas.

The area also is popular with hikers, hunters, swimmers and off-roaders.

"You won't find a bunch of guys on dune buggies and quads out there," Elliott said. But he said there are people like him, who ride their dirt bikes on area roads to Eagle Peak and the top of Cedar Creek Falls.

While some visitors, particularly hikers, generally support the idea of declaring the area a wilderness, off-roaders are sharply opposed.

"They (conservationists) have been promoting this area as the new wilderness area for San Diego," Elliott said. "But you know what? It's just not suitable." He said that is because of the need to keep roads open for fighting fires rescuing visitors.

Still, given the changing political climate in Washington, with the Democrats now in charge, there is a good chance that California's Democratic sponsor will be able to push the bill through Congress, Elliott said.

Buxton, of the Sierra Club, said conservationists are reasonably optimistic about the bill's chances of passage. And she countered the suggestion that Eagle Peak is not worthy of the wilderness label.

"This is not a Yosemite," Buxton said. Nonetheless, she said, Eagle Peak is a beautiful area that offers respite to nearby urban dwellers and must be preserved.

"We're asking, 'What do you want this to look like in 100 years?' " she said. "And if the answer is , 'I want to see it remain the way it is,' then the solution is wilderness."

Elliott said he is worried that designating the area wilderness will close those roads to the peak and the falls that he enjoys. Buxton sought to alleviate those concerns.

"We don't take away a single road," she said.

Not Disneyland

But there is more cause for concern, Elliott said.

"We've had nothing but problems in there," Elliott said. "It is a major nuisance area. And, I'll tell you, you make that area wilderness and the problems will get worse."

According to news reports from the last few years, at least one person drowned in one of the pools and at least one other died after falling off a cliff. Dozens of visitors were rescued after suffering heat exhaustion, broken ankles and rattlesnake bites.

Matt Mathes, a spokesman for the California regional office of the U.S. Forest Service in San Francisco, said Eagle Peak is a place where visitors occasionally get into trouble because they do not plan ahead.

"We try to keep the national forest as open as possible," Mathes said. "But sometimes people don't realize that this is not Disneyland. They do not realize how hot it is down there and how steep it is to hike out. People need to make themselves aware of the hazards and take precautions."

Elliott maintained that a wilderness designation would make matters worse because potential road closures would make it tougher for rescuers to reach those in trouble by vehicle or helicopter.

Mathes said the Forest Service, in writing a new Cleveland National Forest management plan recently, studied the idea of wilderness and recommend against it because of the area's fire danger. The area was the ignition point for the disastrous 270,000-acre Cedar fire, the largest wildfire on record in California, which rose out of the San Diego River Gorge and swept all the way into the city of San Diego in October 2003.

Mathes said the federal agency was concerned about fire trucks being able to use existing roads to reach the area to fight a future fire.

However, Buxton stressed that the legislation keeps roads open, and both rescuers and firefighters would be able to reach Eagle Peak the same way they do now.

Contact staff writer Dave Downey at (760) 740-5442 or ddowney@nctimes.com.