The Sierra Club has joined the effort to designate 51,000 acres of National Forest Land in Michigan as Wilderness.
Sierra Club has a long history in Michigan. We were the leaders of the coalition which passed the Michigan Wilderness Bill in 1987. This bill designated 91,530 acres of Federal Wilderness, in 10 different Wilderness Areas (including McCormick, my personal favorite Wilderness Area in the country).
Now, a new campaign is underway to designate four new Wilderness Areas in the Ottawa National Forest. These Areas total about 51,000 acres. They are:
Trap Hills, Ehlco Area, Norwich Plains, and an addition to the existing Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness. The locations are shown on the map (map courtesy of Environmental Law and Policy Center).
What would Wilderness designation mean? It would not change ownership or impact private property rights. All of the areas are already in public ownership, and this would not change.
Hunting and fishing are currently permitted in these areas, and this would not change. Hiking and camping would be allowed, as they are currently. No areas would be placed off limits to public access.
So what would change? Mechanized use would be prohibited in these areas. This means no wheeled vehicles, including automobiles, ATVs, and mountain bikes. However, nearly a million acres of Ottawa National Forest lands would remain open to mechanized uses, as would seven million acres of public lands statewide.
So why Wilderness?
Wilderness protection would allow a small (less than 5%) portion of the Ottawa National Forest to be free from disturbance and manipulation. In the words Howard Zahniser, author of the Wilderness Act:
"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.”
In addition to allowing visitors to simply experience the environment in it’s natural state, Wilderness designation protects the biodiversity of the area.
In the words of Jon Saari, longtime Wilderness advocate, “Wilderness is the Gold Standard of land protection”.
For More Information, see https://www.keeptheupwild.com/
TAKE ACTION! Let Senator Stabenow know that you support Wilderness in Michigan! Email her using this form: https://www.stabenow.senate.gov/contact