Tennessee Wilderness Act
Key claim: This Senate bill would permanently designate specified federal lands in Tennessee’s Cherokee National Forest as wilderness, generally barring logging, roads, and most development on those tracts.
Abstract
(S1294 · 113th Congress) (This measure has not been amended since it was introduced. The summary of that version is repeated here.) Tennessee Wilderness Act - Designates specified federal lands in Cherokee National Forest in Tennessee as wilderness and as additions to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Latest action (2014-04-08): Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 351.
Why this matters
Wilderness designations lock in the most restrictive federal land-management category, foreclosing timber harvest, motorized use, and new road or infrastructure development on the designated tracts while preserving watershed and habitat values. The bill illustrates the recurring pattern of narrowly-scoped, state-delegation-driven wilderness add-ons to the National Wilderness Preservation System, many of which stall in the Senate despite bipartisan home-state sponsorship.