Marge Sill, ‘Mother of Nevada Wilderness,’ dies in Reno at age 92

Associated Press

Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2016 | 2:14 p.m.

RENO — Marge Sill, a longtime environmental activist known as the "Mother of Nevada Wilderness," has died at the age of 92.

Sill died at her Reno home Sunday shortly after falling ill, according to family members and leaders of Friends of Nevada Wilderness — one of the groups she founded.

Sill joined the Sierra Club shortly after graduating from Cal-Berkeley in 1949 and became a leading voice behind congressional passage of The Wilderness Act in 1964.

Her advocacy work helped lead to creation of Great Basin National Park in 1986 and passage of the Nevada Wilderness Protection Act in 1989. The latter protected 1,100 square miles of wilderness statewide, including Mount Charleston north of Las Vegas, the Ruby Mountains near Elko and Reno's Mount Rose.

Sen. Harry Reid says every protected acre of Nevada has Sill's fingerprints on it.