National Public Lands Week is Underway at FHU

Freed-Hardeman University’s celebration of National Public Lands Week, currently underway, seeks to increase awareness of the nation’s public lands and the issues surrounding them. Educational and service activities planned in conjunction with this event continue until the end of this week.

A political talk show entitled “Live in the Commons! This Land Is Your Land… Or Is It?” is set for Thursday, Sept. 22, at 5:15 p.m. in the Commons. The show will be hosted by FHU faculty members Dr. Greg Massey, chairman of the Department of History, Philosophy, and Political Studies; and Dr. Stephen Morris, associate professor of political studies. Special guests will appear to discuss the issues related to the public lands policy such as religion, national heritage, and big business. Guests will include Jim Barr, Instructor in chemistry; Erin Adams, university archivist; and Jay Satterfield, interim director of financial aid. FHU’s dining services will prepare special brown bag meals to be purchased that evening. Thursday’s event will be recorded by communication students to be shown on TV 40, FHU’s local television channel.

Students and faculty will participate in a service project at Shiloh National Military Park Saturday, Sept. 24, which is National Public Lands Day. National Public Lands Day, sponsored by the Department of the Interior, is the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve America’s lands. The clean up effort to preserve Shiloh will include painting Civil War cannon carriages. The project will begin at 9 a.m. and last until 1 p.m.

Students and faculty have had opportunities to learn about public lands earlier this week. Activities began Monday with the “Tennessee’s Natural Heritage” Art Show Reception and Gallery Talk; the art show featured photographs by FHU faculty and staff of Tennessee’s wild places. The event was followed by “Keeping Close to Nature’s Heart: The Writings of John Muir and Friends,” where FHU faculty read selections from the writing of Muir and other writers inspired by the nation’s lands. On Tuesday night, the theatre troupe Voices of the South held a workshop on campus and then performed their show “Wild Legacy,” which commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.