Clinton signs wilderness designation for Colorado mountains

WASHINGTON (AP) - Two volcanic peaks that rise abruptly from the plains in southern Colorado are now the state's newest wilderness area.

President Clinton on Tuesday signed legislation creating an 18,000-acre wilderness area containing the Spanish Peaks near La Veta, Colo., which rise more than 13,000 feet to become the Rocky Mountains' easternmost promonotory. The designation bans mining, logging and building in the area, reserving the peaks for hiking, camping and similar uses.

''Now that President Clinton has signed this important bill into law, we are assured that the beauty and splendor of the Spanish Peaks will be protected for future generations to come,'' said Sen. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., a backer of the wilderness plan.

The Spanish Peaks area becomes the first new wilderness in Colorado since 1993. The U.S. Forest Service first proposed the peaks as wilderness in 1979, and Rep. Scott McInnis, R-Colo., first introduced a Spanish Peaks wilderness bill six years ago.

Republicans like McInnis and Allard have opposed other restrictions on federal land use but supported the Spanish Peaks wilderness as a way to preserve a dramatic area and boost tourism in the region.

The protected area, in San Isabel National Forest, would surround East and West Spanish Peaks, which are 13,626 feet and 12,683 feet high, respectively. The area includes more than 250 freestanding volcanic dikes - long fingers of rock that look like ridges or walls - that extend as much as 14 miles from the mountains.

The wilderness proposal had been stalled as commercial interests objected to bans on timber cutting and mining and environmental groups worried about exempting a rugged mountain road from the wilderness restrictions.

The road is virtually impassable and hasn't been used by vehicles for years, but environmentalists and some Forest Service officials said exempting it from wilderness could lead to its reopening.

The new law gives the Forest Service authority to manage the road, and that compromise satisfied some environmentalists. Forestry officials said they have no intention of opening the road.