The Clarion University Student Chapter of The Wildlife Society
has formally added its support to the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal
produced by Friends of Allegheny Wilderness in the effort to secure
a wilderness designation from Congress to protect roughly 10
percent of the Allegany National Forest.
The Clarion group is a chapter of the International Wildlife
Society which promotes many of the same values and principles
embodied in the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal.
Some of the chapter’s goals, that are also inherent in the
proposal, include augmenting educational opportunities for students
in natural resources, providing and conserving high quality habitat
for native wildlife, and the building of an active support of an
informed citizenry, according to FAW.
“Setting aside the tracts of land delineated in the Citizens’
Wilderness Proposal will provide open space and a natural
environment in which members of The Wildlife Society can enjoy the
peace, serenity, and healing qualities of a wilderness area,” said
Luke Bobnar, president of the Clarion chapter. “This is especially
important as oil and gas well drilling is increasing in our
national forests.”
Copies of the formal Clarion Wildlife Society endorsement letter
for the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal are being sent to the offices
of U.S. representatives Glenn Thompson and Kathy Dahlkemper, and
senators Robert Casey and Arlen Specter, whose approval is
necessary to achieve the sought designation, a FAW spokesperson
reported.
An act of the U.S. Congress is required to add qualifying
portions of federal public land to America’s National Wilderness
Preservation System, giving the land some of the most powerful
protection that exists under law.
FAW published their Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal for
Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest in 2003, which now
ubiquitously supported, identifies eight areas throughout the ANF
totaling 54,460 acres as qualifying for wilderness standing and
permanent protections of such under the Wilderness Act of 1964,
according to FAW Executive Director Kirk Johnson.
A spokesperson with the group said that during the recently
completed ANF Forest Plan revision, more than 6,800 of 8,200 public
comments received by the agency specifically advocated for FAW and
the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal.
In addition to formally endorsing the proposal, the Clarion
chapter has also gathered the signatures of more than 100 Clarion
University students and other interested citizens at an Earth Day
event held on the campus last April, the press release stated, and
22 of the signatures were from student and faculty members of the
Clarion chapter.
To date, 45 local, state and national organizations (whose
memberships total more than 400,000 people) and 117 businesses
throughout the region have endorsed the wilderness proposal, a
spokesperson relayed.
In addition, 67 scientists with doctorates in the fields of
ecology, biology, economics and other related sciences signed it as
well, formally asking the Pennsylvania Congressional delegation to
support legislatively the areas carefully delineated in the
Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal.
Founded in 1937, the Clarion Wildlife Society joins FAW and five
other conservation organizations as the seventh member group of
Pennsylvania Wilderness Coalition, a concerted effort to compel
Congress to designate more of the ANF as wilderness, Johnson
said.
Member organizations supporting the proposal now include FAW;
The Sierra Club, Pennsylvania Chapter; Pennsylvania Division, Izaak
Walton League of America; Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited; The
Wilderness Society; and the Campaign for America’s Wilderness.
