Wilderness Act turns 40, and people are still arguing about it
Few pieces of environmental legislation have had such far-reaching effects as the Wilderness Act, which observes its 40th anniversary today.
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.
"What unfolded after the act's passage was culturally extraordinary," said Carl Pope, executive director of the Sierra Club. "In some ways, it was an answer to Frederick Jackson Turner's famous 1892 speech about the closing of the frontier."
That speech, said Pope, "opened a conversation about the character of the American landscape. Even with the frontier closed, we could still have wilderness -- or we could manicure every acre, as was done in Europe."
The Wilderness Act, said Pope, marked the end of that conversation.
"We decided that wilderness was part of the American character," Pope said. "The act said: We don't want to be a second Europe."
But wilderness is also a polarizing issue -- as it was in 1964. For the past four decades, advocates for the wilderness designation have battled with loggers, ranchers, petroleum company executives and miners who contend it locks up natural resources that could benefit the nation.
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Wilderness Act turns 40, and people are still arguing about it
Learn more about wilderness protection in Washington State from Earth Share of Washington members Washington Wilderness Coalition and The Wilderness Society.
