Wilderness Act

The concept of developing a federal Wilderness system through Congress began to be seriously explored when in 1948 a group of Congressional members requested a report be compiled on the topic through the Legislative Reference Service within the Library of Congress.[5] 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.[5] 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 of 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.[6] 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.[7]

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 pieces of legislation needed to be passed in his list of 30 "musts".[8] After going to a conference committee to resolve differences between the House and Senate versions of the bill, the Act eventually was eventually signed into law by President Johnson on September 3, 1964.

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 (e.g., vehicles, motorcycles, bicycles).[9]

Section 3 of the Act outlines the creation and regulation of the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS).

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 [the Wilderness Act, however, makes no specific mention of 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 (resource extraction, grazing, etc.) 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.

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

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

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.[10]

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."[11] 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".[12] 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.

• Dant, Sara. "Making Wilderness Work: Frank Church and the American Wilderness Movement." Pacific Historical Review 77 (May 2008): 237-272.
• Doug Scott (August 15, 2004). The Enduring Wilderness: Protecting Our Natural Heritage through the Wilderness Act. Fulcrum Publishing. ISBN 1-55591-527-2.
• "The Wilderness Act of 1964." Archived 2013-08-21 at the Wayback Machine
• "Conducting Wilderness Characteristics Inventory on BLM Lands", 15 March 2012
• Jeffrey 0. Durrant (2007). Struggle Over Utah's San Rafael Swell: Wilderness, National Conservation Areas, and National Monuments. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ISBN 978-0-8165-2669-7.
• James Morton Turner (2012). The Promise of Wilderness: American Environmental Politics since 1964. Seattle: University of Washington Press. ISBN 978-0-295-99175-7.