When I was a kid, a tree saved my life. Now that I’m a musician traveling around the globe to perform in places like Tokyo and Australia, I rarely get to enjoy nature.
Designated wilderness areas are delightful places to experience the magical unfolding of spring. Wild lands offer magnificent destinations for outdoor recreation - whether it's hiking, wildlife-watching, climbing, canoeing, or snowshoeing.
Well, just this week the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources passed 19 wilderness and public lands protection measures. These bills are now eligible for passage out of the Senate and ultimately to become the law of the land!
As of March 1, cuts – known as sequestration – will be affecting every federal agency, including the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service and other environmental agencies.
The Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore Conservation and Recreation Act (S. 23/H.R. 163) would designate approximately 32,557 acres along the mainland shore of Lake Michigan and on nearby island coastlines as wilderness, permanently protecting it for all Americans.
Western states have an advantage over the rest of the country because of their wealth of protected public lands, according to a new recent economic study released by Headwaters Economics.The report,
America’s National Parks, one of the greatest conservation legacies in the world, contain more than 84 million acres of American treasures, from untouched wilderness to historic battlefields marred by war - all protected by the National Park Service.
