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WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama has signed legislation that sets aside more than 2 million acres as protected wilderness.
Obama said Monday the most valuable things in life are those already possessed as he signed a massive public lands management act at the White House. The law protects land from California's Sierra Nevada mountains to the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia, as well as expands wilderness protection efforts.
The president says the legislation protects the land, lakes and shorelines for future generations.
The law -- a collection of nearly 170 separate measures -- represents one of the largest expansions of wilderness protection in a quarter-century. It confers the government's highest level of protection on land in nine states.
(Copyright 2009 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
