CMC hosts Walk for Wilderness events as part of ongoing education
outreach effort
by Vera Smith
As a sequel to last year’s highly successful Wildlife Education
Forums, The CMC this year is co-hosting two Walks for Wilderness—one in the
Roaring Fork Valley on September 25 and the other in Evergreen on September
18. These events are organized walks in which community members get together
to celebrate the benefits and value of wilderness to Colorado on the fortieth
anniversary year of the passage of the Wilderness Act.
The Wilderness Act was signed into law on September 3, 1964 by President
Lyndon B. Johnson, creating the Wilderness Preservation System to “secure
for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of
an enduring resource of wilderness.” Wilderness designation is the highest
form of protection for the land. Wilderness provides a sanctuary from the
busy, mechanized world and allows time and space for recreation, reflection,
and renewal. It provides clean drinking water, crucial animal and plant habitat,
and clean air.
Spanish Peaks Wilderness in
South Central Colorado.
This year, the CMC is proud to
celebrate
the fortieth anniversary of the Wilderness Act
by co-hosting Walks for Wilderness.
Photograph by Jeff Widen.
At the completion of the walk, participants will be
treated to several festivities including keynote speakers, live
music, wilderness education displays, crosscut saw, and Leave
No Trace demonstrations. In Evergreen, walkers will have a chance
to win special prizes and enter a raffle to win the fortieth Wilderness
Anniversary commemorative quilt, created especially for the event.
The CMC was influential in not only garnering support for the Wilderness
Act in the 1960s, but also conducting the first comprehensive inventories
of roadless areas on Forest Service lands. These inventories led to the designation
of wilderness areas throughout the subsequent decades.
For more information, contact Ralph Swain at rswain@fs.fed.us or at (303) 275-5058 or
visit http://www.wilderness.net.
