March 1, 2007                                                                                 Contact: Jim Pasinski

For Immediate Release                                                                   (814) 362-0248

WILDERNESS AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN DOUG SCOTT

TO APPEAR AT PITT-BRADFORD

            BRADFORD, Pa. – Doug Scott, the former associate executive director of the Sierra Club, will speak at the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford this month about the Citizens’ Wilderness Proposal for Pennsylvania’s Allegheny National Forest, which was published in 2003 by the Warren-based Friends of Allegheny Wilderness.

            Scott, a wilderness lobbyist, strategist and historian, will appear at 7 p.m. on Monday, March 12, in the Mukaiyama University Room in the Frame-Westerberg Commons. The speech, which is part of the university’s Perspectives on the Environment Series, is free and open to the public and is sponsored by the Environmental Studies Program at Pitt-Bradford and the Friends of Allegheny Wilderness.

He is the author of The Enduring Wilderness: Protecting our National Heritage through the Wilderness Act, which takes a look at how America has preserved more than 100 million acres of diverse wilderness areas in 44 states through the National Wilderness Preservation System. Scott, who resides in Seattle, Wash., is currently the policy director for the Campaign for America's Wilderness. He will speak about the National Wilderness Preservation System and his view on the importance of permanently protecting the remaining wild areas of the Allegheny National Forest for future generations. A question and answer session with the audience will follow.

“Doug Scott is a nationally-recognized expert on the history of the National Wilderness Preservation System,” said Kirk Johnson, executive director of the Friends of Allegheny Wilderness. “We are very excited to have him in the region for a week to speak about wilderness protection as it relates to the upcoming publication of the revised forest plan for the Allegheny National Forest.”

Scott received a degree in forestry from the University of Michigan. While in graduate school, he served on the board of the organizing group for the original Earth Day and has worked as a lobbyist with the Wilderness Society in Washington, D.C. In 1996 he received the Sierra Club's John Muir Award, which is an environmental honor that encourages awareness and responsibility for the natural environment.

He has been involved in the grassroots campaigns leading to legislation adding many areas to the National Wilderness Preservation System, including the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act, the Endangered American Wilderness Act, the Central Idaho Wilderness Act, and the California Desert Protection Act. He also served as lobbying coordinator of the Alaska Coalition's campaign culminating in enactment of the historic Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980.

The late actor and activist Christopher Reeve called Scott’s book, “A must for ordinary citizens who care about saving our wilderness heritage for future generations. Hopeful, practical, and compelling.”

Dr. Stephen Robar, associate professor of political science, said, “This event will be an enlightening discussion on the issue of protecting the wild areas of the Allegheny National Forest. It is important to the citizens of our region and we encourage the public to attend.”