Celebrating the 60th anniversary of the wilderness act

On Sept. 3, 1964, President Johnson signed the wilderness act; it preserved 54 areas as wilderness, totaling 9,100,000 acres in 13 states. More importantly, it envisioned additional areas being added to the newly created national wilderness preservation system.  

The wilderness act was a compromise. It set a bold vision — to set aside areas where nature would shape the landscape. Yet, it included provisions for cattle grazing in the Gila, outboard motor use in the Boundary Waters, and a 20 moratorium for mining exploration. The process of adding areas was also a compromise. While original proponents of the Wilderness Act wanted the president to be able to add new areas, Congress reserved to itself that right.  

Since then, every Congress has passed (and every president has signed) legislation adding to this legacy of wilderness. Today the system stands at 111,889,002 acres in 806 wilderness areas, in 44 states and Puerto Rico. From the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Wilderness in the Everglades to the Gates of the Arctic in Alaska, these are iconic lands. Places for paddling, hiking, and extended horse pack trips. Places to recreate, to challenge ourselves, to find ourselves. They preserve more than recreation. Wilderness preserves unique habitats including singing dunes and old growth forests. Wilderness is a place to hear the call of the loon or the howling of a wolf. These are places that define the American experience. 

This is also the 40th anniversary of the largest expansion of the wilderness system in the lower 48 states. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed bills protecting 175 wilderness areas, covering 8 million acres across 22 states. 

On June 19, 1984, as he signed bills establishing Wilderness areas in Wisconsin, New Hampshire, Vermont, and North Carolina, Regan remarked: 

“Because of this legislation, these wilderness areas will remain just as they are, places of beauty and serenity for hikers, campers, and fishermen. Generations, hence, parents will take their children to these woods to show them how the land must have looked to the first Pilgrims and pioneers. And as Americans wander through these forests, climb these mountains, they will sense the love and majesty of the Creator of all of that.” 

There is more work to be done. No designated wilderness areas exist on America's national grasslands, despite forest service recommendations. A citizen’s initiative, America’s Red Rock Wilderness Act, would protect spectacular and world-renowned landscapes in Utah, a region which contains abundant and significant cultural resources. Closer to home, in Idaho and Montana, there are many areas where groups are working together to find common ground for common sense proposals that would keep some of our last best places preserved for our kids and grandkids. These proposals take time. Congress acts slowly and with great deliberation. This is what gives the Wilderness act its power to preserve places in perpetuity. 

Yet, President Johnson’s vision remains as true today as 60 years ago when he noted: If future generations are to remember us more with gratitude than sorrow, we must achieve more than just the miracles of technology. We must also leave them a glimpse of the world as it was created, not just as it looked when we got through with it.

Phil Hough is the executive director of the Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness.