Celebrate Public Land: National Public Lands Day 2020

National Public Lands Day 2020 has even more to celebrate this year.  With the passage of the 2020 Great American Outdoors Act, public lands will receive some of the much-needed restoration that has gone unfunded for almost a generation. 

Here in the Tennessee River Valley, public land, “for the people” has been a way of life for over a century.   In August of 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed into law the bill which established the National Park Service.  The mission of this new agency was “to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and wild life therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations.”  

By 1940, President Franklin D Roosevelt had established the Tennessee Valley Authority’s role to include a role in managing public lands for recreation.  In his address to Congress dated January 15, 19040, President Roosevelt stated.” Recreation in its broad sense is a definite factor in the improvement of the bodies and minds of our future citizens.” Today, the TVA manages 293,000 acres of land that is free for the public to enjoy.

“If we are successful here we can march on, step by step; in a like development of other great natural territorial units within our borders.” Message to Congress Suggesting the Tennessee Valley Authority
April 10, 1933