Author Gary Ferguson will be the featured speaker at The Conservation Alliance breakfast at the upcoming Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2014. Ferguson’s talk will focus on wilderness and its important impact on American culture and history, and coincides with the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The breakfast, which is open to the public, will be on Thursday, August 7, from 7:00-8:50 a.m. at The Marriott City Creek in downtown Salt Lake City.

Fifty years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed The Wilderness Act of 1964, creating a system of protected federal lands throughout the U.S. “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Since 1964, Congress has protected nearly 110 million acres of Wilderness in 44 states. These lands are the crown jewels of our natural heritage. Ferguson will explore the legacy of The Wilderness Act, and the recreation, therapeutic, and habitat values of wild places.

“Gary writes and speaks eloquently and from personal experience about America’s most wild places,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance. “We’re lucky to have his presentation to mark the anniversary of one of our country’s most important conservation laws.”

Ferguson is an acclaimed author whose books and articles explore the relationship of people to wild places. In addition to publishing 22 books, Ferguson lectures frequently for universities and conservation groups and has spoken for the National Geographic Lecture Series.

Also during the breakfast, The Conservation Alliance will recognize the organization’s 25th anniversary, and will review the grants that The Conservation Alliance made during its Winter 2014 funding cycle, and successes that grantees have achieved with the funding. The Conservation Alliance breakfast is open to the public.

For complete information, see: http://www.conservationalliance.com/UserFiles/File/Summer%20OR%202014/S14breakfastSTD.pdf.

Logo courtesy The Conservation Alliance