An Enduring Resource of Wilderness

By J.R. Pegg

WASHINGTON, DC, September 3, 2004 (ENS) - Today marks the 40th anniversary of a major milestone in the protection of the nation's wild and special places, the signing of the Wilderness Act.

On September 3, 1964 President Lyndon Johnson signed the landmark conservation law, which protects areas "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

President Lyndon Johnson signing the Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964. (Photo courtesy Sierra Nevada Wilderness Education Project)

"In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness."

The original act set aside 54 wilderness areas - covering 9.1 million acres - of federal land in 13 states through the creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System.

It also created a national mandate to identify additional areas within national forests, parks and wildlife refuges for protection. In 1976 the Federal Land Policy and Management Act extended the mandate to lands managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM).

Today the nation has 662 federal wilderness areas, covering some 106 million acres across 44 states.

The protected areas total 4.7 percent of the United States, with more than half this total in Alaska.

Many of these areas provide a wide variety of recreational opportunities such as hunting, fishing, hiking, climbing, camping and kayaking.

William Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society, says the law should be a "lasting source of pride for all Americans."

A mountain goat near Grasshopper Glacier in Montana's Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (Photo by Lisa Eidson courtesy WildernessNet)

The act did not have an easy path into existence - the first version of the law was introduced in 1957 by Senator Hubert Humphrey, a Minnesota Democrat, and Representative John Saylor, a Pennsylvania Republican.

The concept of enacting a law to protect federal wilderness was met with deep skepticism and even drew opposition from the National Park Service.

But after eight years - and more than 60 rewrites - the Wilderness Act overwhelmingly passed both the Senate and the House and was sent to the White House.

At the time the act was being debated in the Congress there were "bulldozers and cement mixers ready to go to work," said former Maryland Republican Senator Charles McC Mathis, who helped steer the bill through Congress.

"If the act had not passed they would have gone to work and we would have lost that which could not have been repaired," Mathis said. "This is a bipartisan effort that has succeeded - it is unique in its history and achievement."

The 40th commemoration of the Wilderness Act comes amid concern by conservationists that the bipartisan spirit that permitted enactment of the law has dissipated under the Bush administration.

John Muir Wilderness, California. The Wilderness Act did not create additional public lands, rather it provides for protection of areas deemed special enough to preserve for future generations. (Photo courtesy Forest Service)

Critics note the administration has allowed the sale of oil and gas leases on scores of public sites with wilderness quality lands. They also contend a settlement between the BLM and the state of Utah brokered by Interior Department Secretary Gale Norton in effect bars that agency from identifying lands for wilderness potential.

Bush administration officials are quick to point out that the settlement does not affect the 89 million acres of BLM land in Alaska, nor does it impact the 23 million acres of BLM land already designated as wilderness or identified as wilderness study areas (WSAs).

WSAs are lands that meet wilderness characteristics and are managed to preserve those values until Congress decides whether to designate them as wilderness.

Critics note that the BLM has not properly inventoried the 262 million surface acres across 11 Western states under its authority and say the settlement has allowed the agency to sell oil and gas leases on many wilderness quality lands.

There are more than 23 million acres worthy of protection, according to conservation advocates, but now the BLM has given up responsibility for identifying and safeguarding these wild places - leaving Congress with little guidance as to what merits formal protection.

The Wilderness Act has helped preserve the natural splendor of areas like the Abasaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. (Photo by Lisa Eidson courtesy wilderness.net)

Citizen groups continue to push for wilderness protection, with four federal bills currently pending before Congress to preserve land in addition to legislation or proposals pending in 20 states.

The current Congress has not designated a single acre of federal land as wilderness.

Conservationists estimate there are still tens of millions of acres of wilderness quality lands that lack federal protection and hope the 40th anniversary of the Wildness Act will help generate the political support needed to protect some of these areas.

"The bottom line is time and time again Americans have voiced their overwhelming support for adding more wild lands to the National Wilderness Preservation System," said Mike Matz, executive director of the Campaign for America's Wilderness.

"People know that by preserving these wild lands, our water will be clearer, our air will be cleaner, and we will be saving the very natural things that define us as Americans."