[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 66 (Tuesday, April 24, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2383-S2384]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

                                 F_____
                                 

                 REMEMBERING JAMES DODD ``JIM'' MANASCO

 Mr. JONES. Mr. President, today I wish to honor the life and 
legacy of Jim Manasco, who passed away at his home on Smith Lake in 
Alabama on April 12, 2018.
  Jim was a self-taught artist and sign painter who entered the trade 
as an apprentice when he was just 16 years old. He was a successful 
commercial artist for 65 years and possessed the rare ability to letter 
and paint freehand. He was also a gifted creative artist in multiple 
mediums, from carving to pottery to painting.
  In the early 1970s, Jim, his wife, Ruth, and a small group of 
naturalists were leaders in the fight to preserve and protect the land 
along the Sipsey fork of the Black Warrior River in northwest Alabama. 
Because of his

[[Page S2384]]

dedication, Jim was chosen to testify before Congress in support of the 
Eastern Wilderness Act, which was signed into law in 1975, and the 
Sipsey Wilderness, in the Bankhead National Forest, became the first 
wilderness designated in the act. Thanks to Jim and that determined 
group, generations to come will continue to enjoy pristine, undeveloped 
lands east of the Mississippi River. Since passage of the act, more 
than 140 Wilderness Areas and nearly 1.5 million acres have been 
protected in the eastern United States.
  Like FDR, who, following in the footsteps of his ``uncle'' Teddy 
Roosevelt, left a great conservation legacy, Jim saw ``an America whose 
rivers and valleys and lakes--hills and streams and plains--the 
mountains over our land and nature's wealth deep under the earth--are 
protected as the rightful heritage of all the people.'' Thanks to men 
like Jim Manasco, more than half of the people who live in Alabama 
enjoy outdoor recreation every year in the most biologically diverse 
State east of the Mississippi River and one of the most biologically 
diverse States in the entire country. Alabama boasts forests, 
woodlands, wetlands, caves, glades, beaches, and prairies, not to 
mention more than 4,500 documented species.
  The importance of protecting and wisely managing this natural wealth 
cannot be overstated. In Alabama, outdoor recreation generates 135,000 
direct jobs--that is more than twice the number of auto manufacturing 
jobs--it generates $3.9 billion in wages and salaries and $857 million 
in State and local taxes.
  I would be remiss if I did not mention Jim Manasco's other important 
legacy, that of Cherokee wisdomkeeper. The Cherokee played a 
significant role in the history of Alabama, and many Alabamians proudly 
claim Cherokee ancestry. Jim was long honored as a Tribal elder for his 
teachings about carvings on beech trees, native symbols, ceremonial 
knowledge, and Tribal history and for his intimate knowledge of the 
plants and animals that inhabit the landscape of the South. Some of 
this wisdom was captured in his popular book, ``Walking Sipsey,'' 
published in 1992.
  Jim always downplayed his accomplishments, often saying, ``Raw 
talent's got nothing over dogged determination.'' Well, Jim Manasco was 
right, and America needs more men with dogged determination to do the 
right thing. I hope to be one of them.

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