FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 7, 2006
The Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC) today applauded Vermont’s Congressional delegation for their introduction of the Vermont Wilderness Act of 2006, which will designate additional Wilderness and the Mooselamoo National Recreation Area (NRA) in the Green Mountain National Forest. The bill is the result of years of effort by the U.S. Forest Service, the Congressional Delegation, and thousands of Vermont citizens. The legislation builds on the recommendations of the new Green Mountain National Forest management plan. Both Wilderness and NRA designations require Congressional approval.
“This bill is quite consistent with the forest plan’s direction,” said Susan Arnold, director of conservation for the AMC. “In some cases, where the Forest Service proposes administratively managed ‘backcountry’ areas, the delegation is proposing permanently protected wilderness. We see tremendous conservation and recreation values coming out of this bill, with little impact on either the timber harvest or snowmobile trails on the Green Mountain National Forest.”
The Vermont Wilderness Act of 2006, co-authored by U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.) and U.S. Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), would designate a new 28,491-acre Glastenbury Mountain Wilderness near Bennington, a new 16,890-acre Mooselamoo National Recreation Area and a new 12,437-acre Battell Wilderness Area east of Middlebury. Additions to the existing Lye Brook, Breadloaf, Big Branch and Peru Peak Wilderness Areas are also included in the bill.
“This bill is a tremendous gift to the people of Vermont,” said Julie Wormser, AMC’s director of policy. “There are, however, two significant missing areas that we would like to see included in the final bill. First, the final bill should provide additional acreage on the east and north side of the proposed Glastenbury Wilderness Area. The other big omission we’d like to see included in the final bill is the headwaters and river valley of the Winhall River, just east of the Lye Brook Wilderness. Several times, I’ve skied there among high-elevation marsh complexes, following otter trails across ponds and frozen rivers. This area offers extraordinary wildlife habitat and, we believe, would be best managed as Wilderness.”
Wilderness denotes areas on public lands that have been officially designated by Congress to be managed in perpetuity for their wild character. The Wilderness Act of 1964 notes that in designated Wilderness areas, the public is afforded “outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation.” Non-motorized recreation such as hiking, hunting, fishing, camping, and snowshoeing are allowed in Wilderness areas.
Wilderness is relatively rare in the Eastern United States. Only three percent of the nation’s designated Wilderness lies east of the Mississippi. Across the 12 Northeastern states there are fewer than 300,000 acres of Wilderness – about three tenths of one percent of the nation’s total.
Founded in 1876, the Appalachian Mountain Club is the oldest conservation and recreation organization in the United States. With 90,000 members in the Northeast and beyond, the nonprofit AMC promotes the protection, enjoyment, and wise use of the mountains, rivers and trails of the Appalachian region.
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