Associated Press
 
October 30, 2009
 
MEDFORD, Ore. -- The U.S. Bureau of Land Management is buying more private land for the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in Southern Oregon.
 
The Interior Appropriations Bill passed this week includes $1 million for the project.
 
The Pacific Forest Trust in San Francisco has bought about 5,000 acres and is transferring portions of that to the monument as money is appropriated.
 
Dave Willis of the Soda Mountain Wilderness Council says the purchases are helping to strengthen protections for a crucial ecological resource linking the Cascade Range and the Siskiyou Mountains.
 
The bill includes $350,000 for Crater Lake National Park to renovate an old building in Rim Village into a new visitors center.