WASHINGTON, March 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Monday signed an all-inclusive bill on land and water conservation into law, which was welcomed by American environmentalists.

    "This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans, national parks, monuments, and wilderness areas for granted, but rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share," said Obama at the signing ceremony.

    The measure that includes more than 160 bills, would designate about 2 million acres (809,400 hectares) of parks, rivers, streams, desert, forest and trails in nine states as new wilderness, and secure them from oil and gas drilling and other development.

    The newly-designated wilderness are located in California, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia, New Mexico and Michigan.

    "It safeguards more than 1,000 miles of our rivers, protects watersheds and cleans up polluted groundwater, defends our oceans and great lakes, will revitalize our fisheries, returning fish to rivers that have not seen them in decades," said the president.

    American environmentalists applauded the measure, which was cleared by the House of Representatives on Monday, a week after it was approved by the Senate.

    "As global warming changes wildlife habitat and food sources, it's more important than ever that we take care of our last remaining wild forests and rivers," said Sierra Club, an environmental group, in a statement.