Local libraries host virtual wilderness program Durango, Colorado Currently Sat 61% chance of precipitation Friday, April 16, 2021 8:43 PM Toggle font size Escuchar en Español: ED ANDERSSON In celebration of Earth Day, Fort Lewis College professor Andrew Gulliford will present a virtual program, “Wilderness and America,” from 6 to 7 p.m. Thursday on Zoom. In 1964, Congress passed of the Wilderness Act, which preserves millions of acres of land in its primitive state. No other landscapes in the United States are more fully protected yet also threatened in a variety of ways. Gulliford will review the history of wilderness, how colonial settlers feared it and how advocates like Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and Theodore Roosevelt supported it. He will also tell a few tales from the Weminuche Wilderness and show slides of a wilderness workshop held in the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico.