Tennessee Wild News Commentary

As a lifelong Chattanooga resident, I have witnessed the Scenic City's dramatic transformation from an industrial town into a city whose cultural offerings and natural amenities are a regional and national draw for residents and tourists alike.

The combination of a tastefully and responsibly planned city and nearby natural areas for people to hike, climb, paddle, mountain bike and run is a powerful thing. And the investments made by the city, the Benwood and Lyndhurst foundations and others have made our built environment extraordinary.

I had many choices as to where to spend my golden years. My heart chose the Tennessee Cumberland Plateau adjacent an extensive wilderness greenway of Fall Creek Falls State Park for its beauty, diversity and serenity.

The planet's most biodiverse temperate forest is right here in eastern Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest. Biologists would agree that the salamander and fish diversity in this forest is unmatched anywhere on Earth. Nearly 20,000 acres in the Cherokee are being treated as "wilderness," requiring an act of Congress to protect forever. As a volunteer for this cause, I've interacted with thousands of Americans who have taken action through emails, postcards and calls to their U.S.

Richard Foster, Madisonville

I thank the News Sentinel for its editorial in support of the Tennessee Wilderness Act. It's good to see that someone is paying attention, even if the national government, whose job it is, isn't. That is the proper watchdog role of a vigorous press.

I found the Sunday, Dec. 9, Times editorial in support of the Wilderness Bill currently before the Senate both heartening and informative. The bill incorporates key portions of the Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2011, sponsored by Sen. Lamar Alexander and co-sponsored by Sen. Bob Corker of Chattanooga.

Tom Waters, Reliance, Tenn.

Wilderness Act offers protection

I am writing in support of U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander's Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2011 because I like to enjoy recreation in wilderness areas. They are places I can hunt, fish, hike and camp. Pressure on our backcountry is increasing as our population grows. We need to set aside these last, best unprotected places before they're lost forever.

The Tennessee Wilderness Act, which would protect nearly 20,000 acres in Cherokee National Forest, is still pending in Congress.

Instead of being an example of a bipartisan commitment to protect deserving natural areas, it is becoming symbolic of dysfunction in Washington. It is not a controversial bill, and even a gridlocked, lame-duck Congress should find a way to pass it.

Axel C. Ringe, New Market, Tenn.

The 112th Congress is now in overtime, and yet its record of public land protection is headed for a historic low. If this Congress adjourns without taking action on two dozen bills introduced to protect America's wilderness, this will be the first Congress since 1966 not to protect a single acre of wilderness.

The 112th Congress has a lot of unfinished business that likely will remain undone before the current session concludes, yet there remains strong bipartisan support in both chambers to make some vital permanent additions to the nation's designated wilderness areas before this Congress adjourns. Among these long-sought additions are six outstanding tracts totaling nearly 20,000 acres of gloriously pristine land in East Tennessee's Cherokee National Forest. Action by Tennessee's senators and representatives to provide permanent protection of these tracts in the wilderness bill is crucial, and time is short.

The wilderness bill now before Congress is a slimmed down version of the original 2011 package, which included widely supported additions in 25 states. The trimmer version contains areas designated for wilderness areas that are already being managed as wilderness, and where there is no dispute about the merit of permanent wilderness designation, no roads to be closed, no taxes to be lost, no costs required for purchase. There are only benefits to designating them as lasting wilderness.

For those still following the progress of the Tennessee Wilderness Act of 2011 in Congress, I have mixed news. I recently returned form a pilgrimage to Washington, D.C., lobbying in support of U.S.

Sen. Lamar Alexander's bill, and what I can say after meeting with nearly the entire Tennessee delegation is that the gears of government are indeed turning, albeit slowly.