All of this talk about possible creation of new National Monuments got me wondering about the creation of the beloved Weminuche - it's interesting - note seven decades of work:
Who could have known 100 years ago that it would take an Act of Congress to ensure that parts of our public lands would remain "untrammeled" and uninvaded by motorized traffic? Only John Muir, Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Howard Zahniser, and a handful of dedicated individuals who fought for seven decades after creation of the national forests to insure that wildlands, which were being permanently altered by human activities, would be saved. The National Wilderness Act was passed in 1964 and signed by President Lyndon Johnson after 10 hard years of rewrites and public input.
The Weminuche, a 500,000-acre span of wild mountainous terrain, "is Colorado's largest wilderness, attracting thousands of visitors annually. A December, 1974, editorial in the Durango Herald proclaimed, "The creation of the Weminuche Wilderness Area is an event of great importance to Southwest Colorado and the Four Corners Region. The area will rapidly become a major economic asset to the recreation industry and will doubtlessly someday rival Mesa Verde National Park as an attraction." Those words have proven true, and 35 years later the Weminuche Wilderness is a treasure that belongs to all of us.
Posted by Todd Caudle on February 23, 2010 at 3:38 PM
Word. And note the path that the Wilderness Act traveled: The People>The Congress>The President. Textbook case of how it should be done today. And the same path taken by the legislation that expanded the Weminuche, signed into law by President Clinton on his multi-purpose visit to Colorado in 1993. (While it is true that he combined his signing of the new Wilderness bill, which instantly granted wilderness designation to hundreds of thousands of acres of additional Colorado wilderness, including the formlerly unprotected Sangre de Cristo Range, with a visit with Pope John Paul II during the pontif's youth mission appearance in Denver, there is no truth to the rumor that he attended my bachelor party while he was here. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)
Posted by Steven Peckham on February 23, 2010 at 4:45 PM
All of this talk about creating new national monuments, the PBS national park series, etc. sure is interesting to follow. Thanks for bringing up the topic and sharing.
And I can hear the jokes now. Three guys went to a bar. The Pope, the POTUS and a photographer we'll call Todd. And...
Amusing, I see the 70 years of dedicated conservation work and western heritage, others site the process. Things have changed and we don't have 70 years. And note that the USFWS and BLM are leading large cooperative efforts with other agencies, NGO's and communities/stakeholders as part of the process to conserve and link western lands. It's unprecedented and inspiring change.
Posted by Todd Caudle on February 23, 2010 at 7:30 PM
Seeing one does not negate the seeing of the other. (Oooo, that sounds so very Yoda-like! “Do or do not... there is no try.”)
Discussion
4 repliesWho could have known 100 years ago that it would take an Act of Congress to ensure that parts of our public lands would remain "untrammeled" and uninvaded by motorized traffic? Only John Muir, Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Howard Zahniser, and a handful of dedicated individuals who fought for seven decades after creation of the national forests to insure that wildlands, which were being permanently altered by human activities, would be saved. The National Wilderness Act was passed in 1964 and signed by President Lyndon Johnson after 10 hard years of rewrites and public input.
The Weminuche, a 500,000-acre span of wild mountainous terrain, "is Colorado's largest wilderness, attracting thousands of visitors annually. A December, 1974, editorial in the Durango Herald proclaimed, "The creation of the Weminuche Wilderness Area is an event of great importance to Southwest Colorado and the Four Corners Region. The area will rapidly become a major economic asset to the recreation industry and will doubtlessly someday rival Mesa Verde National Park as an attraction." Those words have proven true, and 35 years later the Weminuche Wilderness is a treasure that belongs to all of us.
And I can hear the jokes now. Three guys went to a bar. The Pope, the POTUS and a photographer we'll call Todd. And...