The Wilderness Act of 1964 The Wilderness Act is considered one of America's bedrock conservation laws and was written by The Wilderness Society's former Executive Director
Howard Zahniser. Passed by Congress in 1964, the Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which now protects nearly 110 million acres of designated wilderness areas throughout the United States. Among the first wilderness areas created by the act were: Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, Minnesota; Bridger Wilderness, Wyoming; Bob Marshall Wilderness, Montana; and Ansel Adams Wilderness, California. In The Wilderness Act, Zahniser defines the word
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". This word choice is important because it implies that the areas deemed wilderness would be "unconfined, uncontrolled, unrestrained, or unmanipulated [by humans]."
More than 109 million acres designated as wilderness The Wilderness Society has campaigned for the passage of wilderness bills as a means to permanently protect significant and unspoiled wildlands in the United States. Since the passage of the Wilderness Act in 1964, the National Wilderness Preservation System has grown to more than 109 million acres.
Passage of conservation laws One of The Wilderness Society's specialties is creating coalitions consisting of environmental groups, as well as representatives of sportsmen, ranchers, scientists, business owners, and others. It states that it bases its work in science and economic analysis, often enabling conservationists to strengthen the case for land protection by documenting potential scientific and economic dividends. The Wilderness Society played a major role in passage of the following bills: •
Wilderness Act (1964) •
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act (1968) •
National Trails System Act (1968) •
Eastern Wilderness Areas Act (1975) •
National Forest Management Act (1976) •
Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (1980) •
Tongass Timber Reform Act (1990) •
California Desert Protection Act (1994) • National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act (1997) • The Public Lands Omnibus Act (2009), which added wilderness areas in nine states to the wilderness system.
Major court cases • Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. v. The Wilderness Society-- This U.S. Supreme Court case involved the Alyeska Pipeline, which runs from the north to the south in Alaska. The Wilderness Society wanted to stop construction on the pipeline. They argued that it would damage the environment and violate the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Alyeska Pipeline Company. This allowed the pipeline to proceed with its construction. • Wilderness Society v. Kane County-- This case involved the Wilderness Society, which challenged a decision made by Kane County, Utah, that allowed off-road vehicle use on public lands. The Wilderness Society argued that the off-road vehicle use violated the Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which requires proper management of public lands to prevent environmental harm. The case centered around land use and conservation efforts. The court ended up siding with Kane County, determining that the county's management plan did not violate federal laws. • In both of these lawsuits, The Wilderness Society lost the case. They are still important to address because it shows the Society's actions toward environmental causes via the legal system.
Significant accomplishments • Developed the first maps of remaining old-growth forests in the
Pacific Northwest; this demonstrated the decline in such areas, and provided a factual basis for a national campaign to preserve the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest; • Helped gain congressional appropriations from the
Land and Water Conservation Fund to add millions of acres of wildlands to local, state, and federal parks, forests, and refuges through congressional appropriations; • Produced the first scientifically valid assessment of the status and range of Pacific salmon stocks in California, Oregon, Washington and Idaho, contributing to the emergence of salmon conservation as a major national conservation priority; • Played a significant role in establishing forest land conservation as a priority in New England and helped organize the Northern Forest Alliance, more than 40 organizations working to preserve open space, sustainable forests, and wildlands; • Advocated for passage of the Public Lands Omnibus Act (2009), which added wilderness areas in nine states to the wilderness system – a sweeping package of wilderness bills that protected more than 2 million acres of wilderness in nine states and thousands of miles of rivers in the wild and scenic river system; • Successfully persuaded the government to protect sensitive habitat for caribou and other wildlife in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska from
oil and gas drilling, and helped move a bill to Congress to protect the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; • Gained designations of new national monuments, including: Colorado's Browns Canyon, New Mexico's
Rio Grande del Norte; Washington's
San Juan Islands, Colorado's
Chimney Rock, and California's
Fort Ord; • Won a roll-back of numerous oil and gas leases made around
Arches National Park and other wild Utah red rock lands during the end of the George W. Bush administration; • Pushed the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to institute significant oil and gas leasing reforms, including a new planning tool, called a Master Leasing Plan, which requires a full examination of a landscape for all of its values before determining how oil and gas development can occur. ==Issues and campaigns==