Tennesseans Celebrate "The Year of Wilderness"
Friday, August 22, 2014
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Residents across the state are preparing to celebrate a historic anniversary - the 50th year of the Wilderness Act.
The act was signed into law on Sept. 3, 1964, establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System "as a mechanism to have kind of a unified way of giving protections to wild places that we want to give our highest protection to," said Tennessee playwright and wilderness enthusiast Jim Pfitzer, "places where we don't want to have any road building or developments or mineral extractions, that kind of thing."
Initially, some 9 million acres of wildlands were set aside for the use and benefit of the American people. During the past half-century, Congress has added another 100 million acres.
In Tennessee, thousands of acres of the most beautiful natural areas have been protected. Still, Pfitzer said, it's important that while looking back at the success, people also look ahead to the future.
"There are assaults on wilderness from several fronts right now, people who would like to see the law changed," he said, "So I think it's real important that people don't just rest on what we've already done. We say we protect things in perpetuity, but laws can be changed."
A celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act will be held Sept. 3 at the East Tennessee History Center in downtown Knoxville.
More information is online at wildsouth.org and at jimpfitzer.com.
get more stories like this via email
United Nations experts are raising concerns about chemical giants DuPont and Chemours, saying they've violated human rights in North Carolina…
Social Issues
The long-delayed Farm Bill could benefit Virginia farmers by renewing funding for climate-smart investments, but it's been held up for months in …
Environment
Conservation groups say the Hawaiian Islands are on the leading edge of the fight to preserve endangered birds, since climate change and habitat loss …
Environment
April has been "Invasive Plant Pest and Disease Awareness Month," but the pests don't know that. The U.S. Department of Agriculture says it's the …
Health and Wellness
The 2024 Arizona Alzheimer's Consortium Public Conference kicks off Saturday, where industry experts and researchers will share the latest scientific …
Environment
Environmental groups say more should be done to protect people's health from what they call toxic, radioactive sludge. A court granted a temporary …