President Barack Obama has proclaimed September 2011 to be National Wilderness Month.
This month, we honor this land that we love, and commit to ensuring our wilderness remains a place where all can experience the spirit that has shaped America. During National Wilderness Month, let each of us embrace our nations legacy of protecting and preserving our vast wilderness for generations to come.
The Wilderness Act clearly defines wilderness as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled, (free and unconstrained), by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. It is ...undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions
Wilderness is this generations gift to future generations. It is one piece of the ecological puzzle to save our country from ever-expanding development and resource destruction. It provides important refuge and corridors for wildlife. It protects biological diversity. It is an economic driver to nearby rural communities. It is quiet in a world of near constant noise. It is a remnant of the wild natural beauty that our forefathers (and mothers) experienced. It is freedom from the demands and constraints of civilization. It is available to everyone who wants to experience it young or old, fit or physically challenged. It provides solace or adventure. It is hope, spiritual, restorative.
It is a finite resource that, until it is granted permanent protection by Congress per the Wilderness Act of 1964, faces threats such as the recently introduced Wilderness and Roadless Area Release Act introduced by Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., and co-sponsored by Colorados Rep. Scott Tipton, from Cortez. This measure would overturn more than 35 years of agency policy and the input of citizens and local governments across the country by releasing from interim protection almost 43 million acres of public lands. These lands are currently managed for their wilderness characteristics by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service.
Here in the Four Corners, we are fortunate to have numerous congressionally-designated wilderness areas that offer a vast range of ecosystems from alpine peaks and meadows to desert canyons and slick rock.
The Four Corners Broadband, the local chapter of Great Old Broads for Wilderness, is celebrating National Wilderness Month with hikes into local wilderness areas and participation in service projects on wild public land.
Join in the celebration. Find a wilderness area (wilderness.net) and get your family into the wild hiking, horseback riding, backpacking, hunting, camping, or fishing.
Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a national non-profit that uses the voices and activism of elders to preserve and protect wilderness and wild public lands. Broads represents and gives voice to the millions of older Americans who want to see their public lands protected as Wilderness for future generations. Visit Broads at greatoldbroads.org.