What Is Wilderness?: 2024 Edition

"In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not оссur and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in the 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."

These words, enacted by law in 1964 as part of the Wilderness Act, were proof that our nation had turned a corner. The very landscape that had challenged and shaped our culture was now threatened by our growing population. Our challenge as a modern nation was to decide how to protect areas to preserve their natural processes and values, as wildlife habitat and as places for people to pursue solitude and primitive recreation.

The Wilderness Act empowered Congress to set aside areas as designated Wilderness, and the Wilderness Act requires that all Wilderness areas be “administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such a manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as Wilderness.”

The Wilderness Act of 1964 included the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest Service. It would be 12 years until the Wilderness Act was applied to the Bureau of Land Management in 1976.

The Path to Wilderness: 2024 Edition

Identification

Two of the largest National Wildlife Refuges in Nevada contain agency-recommended Wilderness, the Sheldon Refuge (341,500 acres) and Desert Refuge with (1.3 million acres). Friends of Nevada Wilderness is working to ensure Wilderness designation for both of these refuges.

The USDA Forest Service also works to spot potential Wilderness. The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest (largely in Nevada) has identified roughly 3 million acres of roadless areas, many of which deserve wilderness protection.

In 1976, Congress passed the Federal Land and Policy Management Act (FLPMA-pronounced “Flipma”), requiring the Bureau of Land Management to inventory all lands for suitability as Wilderness. The BLM ultimately identified 110 Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) in Nevada, totaling 5.1 million acres, that the agency felt met the criteria for wilderness established by the Wilderness Act. Congress directed the BLM to preserve wilderness values in WSAs until Congress decides whether to designate them as Wilderness. Friends of Nevada Wilderness has worked hard to get numerous WSAs converted to Wilderness over the years. There are still 59 WSAs waiting for action.

Community Input

Often, the agencies responsible for identifying lands with Wilderness character miss some. That’s why it’s important for ordinary folks to go out on public lands in Nevada and inventory their wildlands, work together to find common sense boundaries, then convince Congress to designate them as Wilderness. Citizens’ Wilderness proposals have been successfully designated in Nevada, and more are being proposed to Congress.

Legislation

Whether identified by BLM, the Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, or ordinary citizens, getting areas designated as Wilderness by Congress requires a lot of champions and hard work. Once these bills are passed by Congress and signed by the President, they become law and new Wilderness is created!

What is Wilderness?

A Wilderness Area is designated by an act of Congress, with a formal definition established by the Wilderness Act, which was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on September 3, 1964:

A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain....[L]and retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions

Beyond its formal definition, for many people, designated Wilderness holds a special place in the heart and mind. Click the links on the left to learn the many ways that Wilderness benefits the individual as well as our society, at large. Find the many uses of Wilderness — uses that span from personal solitude to social benefits like clean air and water, healthy wildlife populations and a protected cultural legacy.

Check out this great Wilderness video from the National Park Service.

Wilderness Defined

Wilderness means many things to many people—watersheds to collect and purify our water; places for our children and theirs to grow healthy and capable; habitat for plants and wildlife; biomedical storehouses to protect tomorrow's scientific and medical discoveries; adventure and exploration; fair chase and a quality hunt; good fishing; archaeological windows into the past, etched into rock and lying on the ground, inviting us to wonder; escape from the noise and rush of civilization; where we can experience solitude and the beauty and wonder of Creation. (...)

Many Uses of Wilderness

Wilderness provides essential services…

• Healthy watersheds to provide clean water

• Healthy plant communities that give us fresh air to breathe

• Healthy soil that provides nutrients for our bodies

Recommended Reading: Jeffrey Weise's 50 Books for the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act

Courtesy of Jeffrey Weise

I don’t know anyone who is a wilderness nut who doesn’t have a favorite wilderness book. Or a shelf full.

Wilderness is Multiple Use

By Bill Schneider

Have you ever heard somebody say they prefer “multiple use” over Wilderness? I have what seems like a thousand times, and every time I hear it, I say to myself, wrong! (...)