Ukiah, Calif. (AP) --
Federal land managers have designated nearly 11,300 acres of land in Mendocino County as new wilderness.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Thursday entered the Elkhorn Ridge Wilderness Area into the National Preservation System.
Elkhorn Ridge was included in the 2006 Northern California Wilderness Heritage Act, a law that required BLM to restore part of the area before it could be officially deemed wilderness.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson of St. Helena, who authored the heritage act, said the official designation would ensure the land's wildlife and undisturbed ancient forest could be enjoyed by future generations.
Located about 60 miles north of Ukiah, the Elkhorn Ridge Wilderness includes forest thick with redwoods and a seven-mile-long stretch of the Eel River that is important salmon and steelhead habitat.
The time frame of "natural rehabilitation" in Elkhorn Ridge Wilderness was 80-100 years of ceased timber harvest and any human occupation - not to be confused with the 5-year sunset on "Potential Wilderness.
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