legislation. When presented with a list of additional candidates for wilderness designation, the Senator's staff came back with restrictions upon the potential new areas that they would consider: 1) they had to be inside the boundaries of the BLM's California Desert Conservation Area (a vast region that encompasses most of southeastern California) and 2) they had to have had some conflict that had prevented them from being included in the original California Desert Protection Act that had since been resolved. Ultimately, 17 wilderness study areas meeting these constraints were identified. April to August 2007 The CWC took Senator Feinstein's staff to each of the 17 areas, traveling over in nine days. The CWC researched each of the areas to identify potential conflicts that might arise from wilderness designation, and negotiations to resolve the problems were initiated. December 21, 2009 Senator Feinstein introduced the California Desert Protection Act of 2010 (S.2921) in the United States Senate. May 20, 2010 The Senate Committee on Energy & Natural Resources heard testimony about the California Desert Protection Act of 2010 from 10 invited representatives of the government, the military, off-road groups, environmentalists and energy firms. Reaction Dianne Feinstein, who proposed the legislation, states that "conservation, renewable energy development and recreation can and must co-exist in the California Desert." "This legislation strikes a careful balance between these sometimes competing concerns." "We have worked painstakingly to ensure that this legislation balances the needs of all stakeholders. This bill, if enacted, will have a positive and enduring impact on the landscape of the Southern California desert, and I hope it will stand as a model for how to balance renewable energy development and conservation." Nature conservation The National Parks Conservation Association calls the legislation "a balanced bill that facilitates renewable energy development" and "encouraged Congress to take bold leadership for our parks and introduce companion legislation to S.2921 in the House of Representatives, so the bill can pass both houses of Congress and become a law." Wildlands Conservancy executive director David Myers testified at the May 20 Senate Committee hearing that "Ten years ago, prominent Democrats and Republicans alike saluted this donation [of Catellus lands] as a patriotic private sector [gesture]". "We urge the committee to support this legislation and to reaffirm America's tradition of wildland philanthropy." The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) "supports the goals of Senator Feinstein's legislation and believes that it is an important