Wilderness Act


The Wilderness Act of 1964 is a federal land management statute meant to protect federal wilderness and to create a formal mechanism for designating wilderness. It was written by Howard Zahniser of The Wilderness Society. After over sixty drafts and eight years of work, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law on September 3, 1964, creating the legal definition of wilderness in the United States and protecting 9.1 million acres of federal land.
The Wilderness Act is well known for its succinct and poetic 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." – Howard Zahniser

When Congress passed and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964, it created the National Wilderness Preservation System. The initial statutory wilderness areas, designated in the Act, comprised 9.1 million acres of national forest wilderness areas in the United States of America previously protected by administrative orders. The current amount of areas designated by the NWPS as wilderness totals 757 areas encompassing 109.5 million acres of federally owned land in 44 states and Puerto Rico.

Background

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, there were growing concerns about the rapidly growing population in America after World War II, a period known as a baby boom. Additionally, American transportation systems grew in size which made transportation easier and increased environmental concerns. A leading concern was that environmental degradation would have an impact on air and water quality, this was partly addressed by the initial passage of the Clean Air Act in 1963.
The problem of American wilderness still persisted even after attempts to regulate pollutants. Part of America's identity was the vast untamed wilderness that was untouched by humans, which had fallen to about 2.5% of the total land in America by the 1960s. Previous efforts to conserve nature had yielded public land designations and protections such as the National Parks System, National Forests, and primitive areas. Unfortunately, many of these designations came short of providing the necessary protections needed to keep the land preserved for future generations. The shortcomings of previous protections were exclaimed by efforts to develop protected lands for mining and energy utilization, a prominent example is the Echo Park Dam controversy at Dinosaur National Monument.The encroachment on existing protected land motivated conservationists to lobby Congress to add additional protections to wilderness land, in particular, Howard Zahniser wrote the first draft of the Wilderness Act.

Legislative history

The Wilderness Act of 1964 went through numerous discussions and drafts before finally being enacted during the 88th Congress.

Before the 88th Congress

The concept of developing a Federal Wilderness system through Congress began to be seriously explored in 1948 when a group of Congressional members requested a report be compiled on the topic through the Legislative Reference Service within the Library of Congress. The report was completed a year later, and the results released the data that had been requested which provided more information on the current state of federal land. In 1956, about seven years later, the first committee hearings began in House and Senate on the topic of protecting Wildlife Refuge areas. The first drafts of the Wilderness Act were introduced in the House in January 1957, where 6 bills were introduced over a span of four days. One month later, the Senate also introduced a draft bill of the Wilderness Act.
President John F. Kennedy, was a supporter of the Wilderness Act, his administration worked to rally Legislators to pass the bill. During the 87th Congressional session, the Senate voted and passed a version of the Wilderness Act, however it never made it to a vote in the House and its overall fate was regarded as uncertain at the time.

The 88th Congress

Early in the 88th Congressional term, the Senate debated and eventually passed the Wilderness Bill in April 1963. After President Kennedy's assassination, President Lyndon B Johnson continued the executive efforts for the Wilderness Act to be passed. During a press conference on June 23, 1963, President Johnson included the Wilderness Act as a piece of legislation that needed to be passed in his list of 30 "musts." After going to a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, the Act was eventually signed into law by President Johnson on September 3, 1964.

Establishment and Impact

The Wilderness Act of 1964 was significant in American environmental legislation, setting a start for the federal protection of wilderness areas across the United States. It was passed with the support in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, showing bipartisan agreement on the importance of preserving natural landscapes for future generations. This act established the National Wilderness Preservation System, defining wilderness as areas, according to Wilderness Society president Howard Zahniser, "where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man." It also stopped most forms of development and motorized vehicles in these areas. The success of the Wilderness Act had a lot to do with the groups who supported it. These groups included not only environmental organizations like the Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club but also labor and civic groups, showing great public interest in preserving America's wilderness.

Legal framework

The Wilderness Act of 1964 included a few provisions, that covered different aspects its implementation.

Definition of a Wilderness

Section 2 of the Wilderness Act provides a justification for and definition of what constitutes an area of land as wilderness.
Wilderness Act land is chosen from existing federal land and by determining which areas are considered to meet the following criteria:
  • Minimal human imprint
  • Opportunities for unconfined recreation
  • At least five thousand acres
  • Educational, scientific, scenic or historical value
  • Have no commercial enterprises within them or any motorized travel or other form of mechanical transport.

    Creation of the National Wilderness Preservation System

Source:
Section 3 of the Act outlines the creation and regulation of the National Wilderness Preservation System.
When Congress designates each wilderness area, it includes a very specific boundary line in statutory law. Once a wilderness area has been added to the system, its protection and boundary can be altered only by Congress. The basics of the NWPS set out in the Wilderness Act are straightforward:
  • The lands protected as wilderness are areas of our public lands.
  • Wilderness designation is a protective overlay Congress applies to selected portions of national forests, parks, wildlife refuges, and other public lands.
  • Within wilderness areas, the Wilderness Act strives to restrain human influences so that ecosystems can change over time in their own way, free, as much as possible, from human manipulation. In these areas, as the Wilderness Act puts it, "the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man", untrammeled meaning that the forces of nature operate unrestrained and unaltered.
  • Wilderness areas serve multiple uses but the law limits uses to those consistent with the Wilderness Act mandate that each wilderness area be administered to preserve the "wilderness character of the area". For example, these areas protect watersheds and clean-water supplies vital to downstream municipalities and agriculture, as well as habitats supporting diverse wildlife, including endangered species, but logging and oil and gas drilling are prohibited.
  • Along with many other uses for the American people, wilderness areas are popular for diverse kinds of outdoor recreation but without motorized or mechanical vehicles or equipment except where specifically permitted. Scientific research is also allowed in wilderness areas as long as it is non-invasive.
  • The Wilderness Act allows certain uses that existed before the land became wilderness to be grandfathered in and so they may continue to take place although the area that was designated as wilderness typically would not concede such uses. Specifically, mining, grazing, water uses, or any other uses that do not significantly impact the majority of the area may remain in some degree.

    Land use regulations

Source:
Section 4 lists what usage is not allowed on land protected by the NWPS, and define the exceptions to the rules.
Prohibited actions include:
  • Use of a motor vehicle, equipment, motorboat. or any other mechanical transport
  • Creation of a permanent or temporary road
  • Inclusion of a commercial enterprise
  • Aircraft landing

    Expansion of the program

Sections 5, 6, and 7 discuss how Congress shall handle acquisition of more land, gifts, and addition of new designated wilderness areas.

Uncertainties

Some topics surrounding the Act remained unanswered, which has prompted future actions and controversies.
When the Wilderness Act was passed, it ignored lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management because of uncertainty of policy makers surrounding the future of those areas. The uncertainty was clarified in 1976 with the passing of the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which stated that land managed by the Bureau of Land Management would remain federally owned and, between March 1978 and November 1980, would be reviewed to possibly be classified as wilderness.
Some argue that the criteria to determine wilderness are vague and open to interpretation. For example, one criterion for wilderness is that it be roadless, and the act does not define the term roadless. Wilderness advocacy groups and some agency staff have attempted to use this standard: "the word 'roadless' refers to the absence of roads that have been improved and maintained by mechanical means." For more information, see Revised Statute 2477.
The Wilderness Act has been interpreted by the administrating agencies to ban bicycles from wilderness areas based on the statutory text prohibiting "other mechanical forms of transport". It is noteworthy that mountain bikes did not exist when the Wilderness Act was enacted, hence they were not explicitly identified in the statute. The prohibition on bicycles has led to opposition from mountain bikers to the opening of new wilderness areas.
Because of the Wilderness Act and the growing federal oversight of environmental protection, opposition movements like the Sagebrush rebellion and the Wise use movement emerged, particularly in the American West. These movements represented a shift in the political landscape, fighting against what they saw as federal overreach and advocating for states' rights and individual property rights over public land management. The conflict over wilderness protection and public land management showed the growing division in American environmental politics, showing bigger cultural and ideological divides. This period of environmental opposition not only challenged the principles of federal land management but also contributed to the reorganization of political ideas, playing a role in the evolution of the New Right and the Republican Party's stance on environmental regulations. The Wilderness Act, therefore, not only marked a critical moment in the history of environmental protection but also set the stage for ongoing debates about the role of government in managing natural resources and the balance between conservation and development.