Wilderness Act’s birthday worth celebrating –

greatfallstribune.com

On this date 40 years ago, President Lyndon Johnson signed S.4013 “to establish on public lands of the

United States a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people. …”

Said the president:

“If

future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We

must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it.”

One hundred and thirteen

times since then, eight presidents — including, on four occasions, George W. Bush — have signed laws designating additional wilderness,

from the five-acre Pelican Island in Florida to the more than 9 million-acre Wrangell-St. Elias Wilderness in Alaska.

Today, thanks to

this pathfinding, grassroots and bipartisan legislation, 106 million acres of American public land in 44 states is protected from

development.

But there’s more to be done.

For one thing, eight times as much public land, mostly in the West, remains roadless and

undeveloped, but it isn’t protected by wilderness designation. Some of it should be.

Despite the economic, aesthetic and even

theological value of leaving some places alone, the pressure to develop those last unprotected areas is intense, and it has not decreased

during the Bush administration.

Wilderness Act turns 40, and people are still

arguing about it

The federal act designated 9.1 million acres as wilderness, described by the bill’s framers as land “where the

earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”

More than anything else,

the 1964 bill planted the concept in the American consciousness that wilderness has innate public value, that it contributes to the

common good.

40th Anniversary of Wilderness

Protection Act / Our great American wilderness needs better protection

Wilderness Facts

Under the 1964 Wilderness Act:

—

There are now 106 million acres protected as wilderness. Alaska accounts for more than half of them, 58 million acres, which is 16

percent of the state. California has 14 million acres, or 14 percent of the state. Other states with more than 4 million acres of

wilderness are Arizona, Washington and Idaho.

— President Bush so far has signed four wilderness bills by Congress adding 529,604

acres, nearly all in Nevada. The most acreage was added by President Carter, who signed 14 wilderness bills covering a total of 66.3

million acres, mostly in Alaska. Ronald Reagan signed 43 bills adding 10.6 million acres. Bill Clinton signed 13 bills adding 9.5 million

acres. George H. W. Bush signed 10 bills adding 4 million acres.

— California has the most wilderness areas, 130, followed by

Arizona, 90; Alaska, 48; Nevada, 42; Colorado, 41; Oregon, 40; and Washington, 30. [663 areas nationwide]

Sources: The Interior

Department; The Wilderness Society; Wilderness.net

Wilderness protection’s enduring

U.S. legacy

These days, with the nation divided over so many things, it is easy to forget that once, not so long ago, wilderness

protection was not seen as predominantly a Republican or a Democratic issue, but as a valuable legacy for both parties. In fact, while

Jimmy Carter can claim the largest amount of wilderness (66 million acres) signed into law by any administration, Ronald Reagan signed

more wilderness bills (43) than any other president.

Venerable Wilderness Act stands test of time

Only

Congress can designate wilderness, although the president has to sign laws doing it. The acreage added so far in Bush’s tenure is the

least of any president since Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act on Sept. 3, 1964.

Motorized vehicles and equipment, such as

chain saws, are prohibited in wilderness areas. Camping, hiking, climbing, fishing, hunting, canoeing and horseback riding are allowed;

grazing livestock is generally allowed. Off-limits are mountain biking, commercial logging, road-building, oil and gas leasing and

mining, except for pre-existing claims. …

Last year the Bush administration directed the Interior Department to quit barring oil and

gas drilling on land proposed for wilderness but not yet designated by Congress. Since then, the department has issued oil and gas leases

on tens of thousands of these acres, mainly in Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. …

Few of the 114 bills signed by Johnson and successive

presidents creating 663 wilderness areas around the nation have been tinkered with, and there never has been an attempt to undo a

wilderness designation.

“The magic is it requires Congress, which in turn requires the citizenry, to be engaged. That’s where it gets

its power,” said William Meadows, president of The Wilderness Society.

His group believes another 200 million acres, much of it in

Alaska, should be considered for wilderness protections. …

Utah author and naturalist Terry Tempest Williams sees poetry in a law

that defines wilderness 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.”

“Those who wrote this legislation into being understood the crucial and subtle relationship between language and

landscape,” Williams said. “How we speak about wild, open country is closely aligned with how we treat it. Open lands open minds.”

THE

Wilderness Society