Celebrating the Great Law: The Wilderness Act at 50

When	Thursday, September 4, 2014 - Friday, September 5, 2014 5:30 PM
Location	Wittemyer Courtroom
For	Public; Faculty; Staff; Students; Alumni
Cost	Free

A gathering hosted by the Getches-Wilkinson Center & The Wilderness Society
September 4 & 5, 2014
Wolf Law Building, Boulder, CO


On September 3, 2014, the National Wilderness Preservation System—established and protected by the Wilderness Act of 1964—celebrates its 50th anniversary. We will be gathering on September 4th and 5th to celebrate Wilderness—“ornery old wilderness, scratchy, sweaty, and distant, but sacred every step of the way”—and to commemorate the great law so central to its protection. This will not be an ordinary conference, full of dry presentations or heated policy debates. Instead, this will be a full-throated love song to wild country. We will bring together the most inspiring, insightful, and compelling Wilderness luminaries: writers, storytellers, advocates, historians, educators, photographers, and other admirers. We’ll even invite some musicians and poets. The most important invitee of all will be the public—those who make wilderness an important part of their lives, and those who simply take comfort in its existence. Our goal will be to tell the story of the Wilderness movement over the course of the last 50 years, to rearticulate the ethos of the Wilderness community in light of that history, and to take a short moment to reflect on and appreciate the progress that has been made. The gathering will begin on Thursday evening with a Wilderness talk and slide show by nationally-renowned landscape photographer John Fielder. On Friday, the celebration will continue with a series of talks, vignettes, panels, readings, poems and songs. We’ll hear from some of the early activists who helped to found the Wilderness movement, and from some of the young people who will carry it forward. In the end, we hope to leave with a fresh appreciation for the Wilderness and the great law enacted to protect it, and a renewed determination to continue to fight to preserve and enhance one of our most precious and sacred assets.

Keynote Kickoff with John Fielder

All Other Videos

More Information

Contact	Shaun LaBarre shaun.labarre@colorado.edu
Website	http://www.colorado.edu/law/research/gwc/events
Moderated By	Charles Wilkinson Colorado Law, Moses Lasky Professor of Law Jamie Williams President, The Wilderness Society
Speakers	Thursday, September 4th John Fielder Renowned Landscape Photographer and Nature Writer “A Celebration of 50 Years of Colorado Wilderness” Friday, September 5th OUR HOSTS Charles Wilkinson Distinguished Professor & Moses Lasky Professor of Law