Wilderness 101
What Wilderness Is…
- Formally designated by Congress, thanks to The Wilderness Act (1964) that created the National Wilderness Preservation System
- Wild places in all regions of the country
- Places that are “untrammeled” by man
- Undeveloped federal land with primeval character
- Managed to preserve natural conditions
- National Forest, Bureau of Land Management, National Park, National Wildlife Refuge lands
What Wilderness Is NOT
- Closed: Wilderness is open to recreation and other uses
- A fire hazard: Firefighting is allowed in wilderness areas
- Bad for the economy: The Eastern Sierra’s economy is tourism-based, and
- Inaccessible: Here in the Eastern Sierra, wilderness areas are in our backyard.
About The Wilderness Act
In 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson and visionary leaders in Congress charted a new course in the history of the US and of the world by legislating the preservation of the country’s last wild places.
The Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System, which now includes 107 million acres of wild places from all regions of the country, from Alaska’s vast wildlife refuges to the cypress swamps of the south.
The Sierra Nevada contains the second largest complex of contiguous wilderness acreage in the lower 48, from Yosemite National Park to the South Sierra wilderness. This includes the Hoover, John Muir, Ansel Adams and Golden Trout Wilderness areas in the Eastern Sierra’s back yard.
Other proposed wilderness areas in the Eastern Sierra–such as the White Mountains on the edge of the Great Basin– would add underrepresented ecosystems to the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Definition of Wilderness
Howard Zahniser wrote the first draft of the Wilderness Act and created a formal definition of wilderness:
A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own 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. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this chapter an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.
Wilderness Designation Process
The Wilderness Act put the creation of new wilderness areas into the hands of the people through their elected legislators. Instead of waiting for land management agencies to make recommendations through a time-consuming administrative process, citizens can develop their own wilderness proposals and submit them directly to a member of congress.
That’s exactly how the proposed Hoover Addition in Mono County was formulated, and how other wilderness proposals are being made in the Eastern Sierra.
Read more about the legislative process at wilderness.net.
Wilderness Myths and Realities
From the Wilderness Society’s Wilderness Act Handbook, available for download at wilderness.org.
There is a lot of misunderstanding about what is allowed in
wilderness areas. Sometimes those who oppose this form of land
protection promote such confusion. To raise the level of the
wilderness debate, we have pulled together some of the most
common myths—and the realities.
MYTH: Wilderness conflicts with “multiple use” of federal lands.
REALITY: Wilderness is a “multiple use” both in fact and in law,
with wilderness preservation first being recognized—legally—by
the Multiple Use and Sustained Yield Act of 1960 and subsequently
reaffirmed by two major 1976 laws: the Federal Land Policy and
Management Act and the National Forest Management Act.
The “multiple uses” of wilderness, according to law, include the
protection of watersheds that are essential for clean and abundant
water, the maintenance of soil and water quality, ecological
diversity, plant and animal gene pools, and habitat for wildlife,
including rare and endangered species. In addition, wilderness
provides unsurpassed opportunities for a wide range of outdoor
recreation activities, including hiking, horse-packing, backpacking,
hunting, and fishing.
MYTH: Wilderness restricts recreation opportunities.
REALITY: One of the most important purposes of wilderness is to
provide people with a broad array of outdoor recreational
opportunities. These include backpacking, hiking, hunting, fishing,
camping, horseback riding, mountaineering and rock climbing,
cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, wildlife viewing, photography,
canoeing, and kayaking. The only exception to these uses is in
wilderness in national parks, where hunting is prohibited because of
the underlying national park designation.
MYTH: Wilderness “locks up” commercial forestlands.
REALITY: Wilderness preservation is a negligible factor in the
availability and production of U.S. timber. The national forests
produce less than five percent of the total U.S. timber supply.
Timber in designated and potential wilderness is generally less
accessible and less cost-efficient than in other government and
private forestlands that are readily available.
MYTH: Wilderness harms local and regional economies.
REALITY: Quite the contrary. Wilderness provides numerous
economic benefits and helps to maintain the natural capital that can
help communities diversify economies by attracting and retaining
new businesses, residents, and a local workforce. Wilderness also can
protect scenic backdrops that improve property values, thereby
increasing county revenues.
MYTH: Only pure, pristine, and virgin lands qualify for
wilderness designation.
REALITY: The Wilderness Act carefully defines wilderness as “an
area of undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character and
influence…and which generally appears to have been affected primarily
by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially
unnoticeable.” The Forest Service’s “purity” doctrine was repudiated
by Congress in 1975 in the Eastern Wilderness Areas Act and the
Endangered American Wilderness Act of 1978.
MYTH: Wilderness erodes private property rights.
REALITY: Only federal land may be designated as wilderness. Private
property inside designated wilderness areas can be acquired only if the
owner agrees to sell, unless the acquisition is specifically authorized by
Congress. Private land may be surrounded by wilderness, but wilderness
area management restrictions—such as prohibitions on logging and road
construction—do not apply to private land. Property owners must be
assured “adequate access” to their parcels, and that could include
permission to drive through wilderness.
MYTH: Motorized transportation is totally prohibited in wilderness
areas, even in emergencies.
REALITY: The Wilderness Act prohibits the general use of motorized
equipment or vehicles in wilderness, but the law clearly allows such
nonconforming uses where necessary to insure the health and safety
of people.
MYTH: Fires, insects, and diseases may not be controlled in
wilderness areas.
REALITY: Section 4(d)(1) of the Act states that “such measures may
be taken as necessary in the control of fires, insects and diseases.”