Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act

The Wilderness Act was signed into law on September 3, 1964, setting aside 54 designated areas in the United States to remain “forever wild.”
Today, that number has increased to 806, comprising more than 111 million acres.

Join the Sierra Club and the Missouri Department of Conservation, along with special guests from the U.S. Forest Service,
Missouri State Parks, and Kansas City Wildlands as we commemorate
this important and historic event.

Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024
Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center
Reception 6:00 p.m.; Program 6:30 - 8:30 p.m.
Refreshments and Door Prizes Provided

Please also RSVP at sc.org/60-wild.

The Sierra Club, Thomas Hart Benton Group, would like to thank the following speakers for celebrating with us and sharing their expertise:

The Federal Wilderness Act in Missouri
Ed Sherman, U.S. Forest Service, Mark Twain National Forest, Recreation Program Manager
Shane Hoskins, U.S. Forest Service, Mark Twain National Forest, Dispersed Recreation Manager
The Wild Areas in MIssouri State Parks
Ken McCarty, Missouri State Parks, Natural Resource Management Program Director
The Wild Lands of Kansas City
Hunter Moore, Kansas City WildLands, Program Manager
The 30 by 30 Campaign in Missouri
Marisa Frazier, Missouri Sierra Club, Senior Field Organizer

Ed Sherman currently serves as the Recreation Program Manager for the Mark Twain National Forest. In a nearly 20-year career, he’s been fortunate enough to work directly on thirteen Wilderness areas. His current position finds him more behind a desk than in the past, but Ed continues to hold the strong Wilderness ethic and support the work that Shane Hoskins and others do in Wilderness. He ensures that Wilderness remains in the forefront of stewardship efforts on the Mark Twain and takes pride in our Wilderness here in Missouri.

Shane Hoskins currently assists with the management of the wilderness, wild and scenic rivers, and dispersed recreation opportunities across the Mark Twain National Forest. Prior to moving to Missouri, Shane worked in various recreation, wilderness, and natural resource positions with the National Forests in Alabama, Inyo National Forest, and Carson National Forest.

Ken McCarty is currently director of the Natural Resources Program for the Missouri State Parks, where he spent the last 37 years fully engaged in preserving, restoring and perpetuating nature in our state parks. Wilderness and finding wildness in nature is a personal passion, and Ken has had the privilege of overseeing management of our own State Park Wild Areas throughout this long time frame. His profession has allowed much time and involvement in these twelve special areas, covering over 23,000 acres of state park lands. In this professional role, Ken drafted the current State Park Wild Area Policy, the Wild Area Management Plans for Roaring River Hills and Mudlick Mountain Wild Areas, and both wrote and spearheaded the nomination process that brought the 1,168-acre Elk River Hills unit at Big Sugar Creek State Park into our state park Wild Area system. Most recently he wrote the nomination which added 800 acres to the Goggins Mountain Wild Area at Johnson’s Shut-ins State Park, effectively bridging the gap between this state-designated wilderness and the Bell Mountain Wilderness. This addition creates a continuous wilderness block of over 15,000 acres, the second largest in Missouri.

Hunter Moore is an ecologist and manager for the Kansas City WildLands program at Bridging The Gap. Kansas City WildLands conserves, protects, and restores remnant natural areas across the KC metro -- the last true wild areas on public land. By involving people in each step of land stewardship and fostering partnerships for progress, Kansas City WildLands has successfully managed hundreds of acres of high-quality natural areas through invasive species management, leading a regional native seed team, implementing prescribed fire, and citizen science through education and outreach. He holds a B.S. in environmental biology and STEM education from the University of Central Arkansas and a Master's in ecological restoration from the University of Florida.

Marisa Frazier , Senior Public Lands Organizer & Conservation Program Coordinator for the Sierra Club, Missouri Chapter, is based in Springfield and leads grassroots advocacy efforts to protect public lands and clean air, water and wildlife throughout Missouri and progress us towards our goal of protecting 30% of lands by 2030. Her work has led to the protection of four new state parks as well as mobilizing thousands of members to support a more protective management plan at Ozark National Scenic Riverways, the Eleven Point Scenic River, and Mark Twain National Forest, and better protections for communities from concentrated animal feeding operations.