[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 33 (Tuesday, February 27, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2268-S2269]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         TRIBUTE TO MARY BURKS

 Mr. SESSIONS. Mr. President, today I pay tribute to Mary 
Burks, founder of the Alabama Conservancy, mother of the wilderness 
movement, and champion of the Sipsey Wilderness in the Bankhead 
National Forest.
  Last week, Mary Burks passed away in Birmingham, at the age of 86.
  Her passing is a loss, not just for Alabama or the conservation 
movement, but for every person who has ever explored and enjoyed 
Alabama's vast wilderness. She helped protect those natural areas, and, 
without her, our children might not be as able to enjoy them as they do 
today.
  Her lifelong struggle to protect and conserve sensitive lands 
provides a record of accomplishment that deserves both recognition and 
celebration.
  John Randolph, author of a book titled The Battle for Alabama 
Wilderness, described Mary Burks's passion for what she did. Randolph 
says, ``If one believes in fate, then surely Mary Burks was fated to 
become the mother of Alabama wilderness preservation. Passionate, 
tough, and resilient, a lover of all things wild and natural . . .''

[[Page S2269]]

  Mary Burks did not simply sit and dream. She led a 6-year campaign in 
the early 1970s to designate the Sipsey Wilderness area in the Bankhead 
National Forest as wilderness. In doing so, she won the support of the 
entire Alabama congressional delegation.
  That is not always an easy thing to do.
  After the campaign, not only was the Sipsey Wilderness created, but 
the Eastern Wilderness Area System was established when President 
Gerald Ford signed the Eastern Wilderness Act. It is fair to assume 
that this success would not have been achieved without Mary Burks' 
tireless efforts.
  Today, Alabama is home to more than 41,000 acres of wilderness, 
including the Cheaha and Dugger Mountain Wilderness Areas. As you know, 
hundreds of thousands of acres have now been designated as wilderness 
in the Eastern United States.
  All of these accomplishments have roots in Mary Burks's original push 
to preserve wilderness in Alabama.
  Describing the importance of Mary's efforts and the organization that 
she founded, the Alabama Conservancy, Floyd Haskell, former U.S. 
Senator from Colorado, stated ``If not for the Alabama Conservancy, 
there would be no concept of Eastern Wilderness.''
  There is a difference between thinking that things ought to be a 
certain way, and actually making them so. Too often we are quick to do 
the former, and slow to do the latter. But the protected resources in 
my home State and others are larger in size, great in quantity, and 
more secure in their protection because Mary Burks fought for them all 
her life. She left a lasting legacy in Alabama that will forever be 
felt by all who care about wilderness and natural places.

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