On Saturday, we will celebrate National Public Lands Day.

It's a good time to pause and think about the real value of our shared forests, mountains, rivers and streams.

A Sierra Club Report, "America's Wild Legacy," released this week, identifies 50 of our most threatened – and most important – public lands.

Here in North Carolina, our water resources are in jeopardy from over development, and the Sierra Club and local citizens have been working to protect them by conserving natural resources. Every American is part owner in our nation's federal public lands and waters.

These are the wild places and open spaces where we hike, camp, hunt and fish, where wildlife live and raise their young, and where we seek solace and solitude.

Here in Rocky Mount, the Tar River Paddle Trail provides local people as well as visitors an opportunity to hunt, fish, camp, enjoy the outdoors and to sustain life.

The vast majority of our public lands are already open for development of one kind or another. And now our wild places and wildlife face one of their biggest threats: global warming.

That makes the few remaining places, like the Tar River Paddle Trail, even more important to protect.

This weekend, I urge you to get out and enjoy the Tar River Paddle Trail or another one of our public lands. They belong to you, and if we protect them now, they will also belong to your children and grandchildren.

Kevin L. De Bruhl

Sierra Club

Medoc Group Outings

Chairman

Rocky Mount