S*1241 Resolution, By Courson

Similar(H 5157)
 A SENATE RESOLUTION TO COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FEDERAL
 WILDERNESS ACT OF 1964, AND TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR THE SIERRA CLUB FOR ITS
 OUTSTANDING AND ESSENTIAL WORK IN PROTECTING NATIONAL WILDERNESS AREAS.

   04/29/14  Senate Introduced and adopted (Senate Journal-page 3)

TO COMMEMORATE THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE FEDERAL WILDERNESS ACT OF 1964, AND TO RECOGNIZE AND HONOR THE SIERRA CLUB FOR ITS OUTSTANDING AND ESSENTIAL WORK IN PROTECTING NATIONAL WILDERNESS AREAS.

Whereas, the landmark Wilderness Act of 1964 revolutionized wilderness protections in a conservation bill that created a way for Americans to protect their most pristine wildlands for future generations; and

Whereas, the Wilderness Act of 1964 was passed by the United States Congress and was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964; and

Whereas, written by The Wilderness Society's Howard Zahniser, the Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which encompassed over nine million acres of national wilderness forests; and

Whereas, today the National Wilderness Preservation System protects five percent of the nation's land mass, which spans almost one hundred ten million acres of wilderness areas in forty-four states from coast to coast and in Puerto Rico; and

Whereas, known for its concise and graceful definition of wilderness, the Wilderness Act states, "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain"; and

Whereas, South Carolina boasts seven wilderness areas totaling fifty-eight thousand eight hundred fifty-six acres of protected land: Cape Romain, Ellicott Rock, Hell Hole Bay, Wambaw Swamp, Little Wambaw Swamp, Wambaw Creek, and Congaree National Park Wilderness; and

Whereas, home to such diverse species as the loggerhead turtle, the red wolf, the champion pine, and the tupelo tree, these wilderness areas in the Palmetto State have flourished under the protection and expanding work of the Sierra Club; and

Whereas, the members of the Senate of the State of South Carolina appreciate the legacy that the Wilderness Act of 1964 has created over the past half of a century and look to celebrate its continued blessings in the future. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate:

That the members of the Senate of the State of South Carolina, by this resolution, commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the federal Wilderness Act of 1964, and recognize and honor the Sierra Club for its outstanding and essential work in protecting national wilderness areas.