did not recommend it because Congressional action seemed likely. The 2015 bill passed after receiving increased attention when President Obama indicated he would designate a national monument in the area if the wilderness bill did not pass. Additionally, other large areas of the forest are parts of proposed wilderness areas, such as through the Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act. These other proposals have gained no support among Idaho's congressional delegation because the bills could place undue public use and development restrictions on Idaho's public lands. The Wilderness Act enhanced the protection status of remote or undeveloped land already contained within federally administered protected areas. Passage of the act ensured that no human improvements would take place aside from those already existing. The protected status in wilderness-designated zones prohibits road and building construction, oil and mineral exploration or mining, and logging, and also prohibits the use of motorized equipment and bicycles. The ways people may enter wilderness areas are on foot or on horseback. Natural resources Flora About 47 percent of the forest's land is forested, and an additional 3 percent can support trees, but does not currently have any. Lower elevations in Sawtooth National Forest often have sagebrush and grassland vegetation types, while forested areas contain a variety of tree species. Lodgepole pine forms nearly monotypic forests in part of the SNRA with sparse vegetation under the tree cover. Plants that can be found under lodgepole pines include grasses, scattered forbs, dwarf huckleberry, and grouse whortleberry. Douglas-fir and quaking aspen are found in similar environments throughout the forest with understories of low shrubs, such as common snowberry and white spirea. Aspen is also found throughout the forest at elevations ranging from to . The highest elevation forests contain whitebark pine, Engelmann spruce, subalpine fir, and limber pine, including the largest individual whitebark pine in North America. Based on tree ring chronologies, some of the whitebark pines are believed to be 700 to 1000 or more years old. The highest elevation forests typically have understories of grasses and forbs that are resistant to freezing at any point of the growing season. Willows, alders, cottonwoods, and sedges are found in riparian areas. Ponderosa pine occupy the dry, lower elevations near the western edge of the forest and historically persisted due to the occurrence of frequent non-lethal fires. Ponderosa pine forest understories typically consist of perennial grasses such as Idaho fescue and bluebunch