FAW Director to Attend Wilderness Stewardship Conference in Las Vegas

WARREN -- Warren-based Friends of Allegheny Wilderness (FAW) executive director Kirk Johnson has been invited to attend the second annual wilderness stewardship conference facilitated by the fledgling National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance (NWSA). This year's conference will take place from March 10th through March 13th in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The mission of the recently-established NWSA is to "develop a growing network of volunteer-based organizations to provide stewardship for America's enduring resource of wilderness." The NWSA vision is to see each wilderness area in the National Wilderness Preservation System adopted by a wilderness organization dedicated to protecting the area through partnerships with government agencies charged with their management.

In addition to FAW's ongoing primary mission of seeking to protect substantial additional portions of the Allegheny National Forest (ANF) under the Wilderness Act of 1964, the non-profit organization has over the last ten years also devoted significant energy and resources to the stewardship of the ANF's existing Hickory Creek and Allegheny Islands Wilderness Areas.

Mr. Johnson is frequently invited to wilderness advocacy-oriented conferences on behalf of FAW. Since 2000, he has attended in conferences in Boulder, Colordao; Tucson, Arizona; Lake Tahoe, California; Asheville, North Carolina; Seattle, Washington; Los Angeles, California; numerous conferences in Washington, D.C.; and others.

This year's NWSA conference will include expert panels, keynote speakers, and hands-on workshops to provide wilderness groups with information to assist federal land management agencies in wilderness stewardship, and to build strong stewardship organizations. Mr. Johnson has been awarded a full scholarship from NWSA to enable him to represent FAW at the Las Vegas conference.

Mr. Johnson earned a B.A. degree in philosophy from Albion College, and a Master of Environmental Studies degree from The Evergreen State College. He has been the executive director of FAW, an organization he founded in 2001, for nearly ten years. FAW looks forward to continuing to work cooperatively with the U.S. Forest Service in stewardship of Hickory Creek, Allegheny Islands, and proposed ANF wilderness areas during 2011.

Friends of Allegheny Wilderness online: http://wwww.pawild.org

National Wildenress Stewardship Alliance online: http://www.nationalwildernessstewardshipalliance.org