The Wilderness Act is 50 years old today. No way it would get through the U.S. Congress in this decade. Click here for a very thoughtful appraisal of “wilderness” on today’s “On Point” radio show.
At that time ecologists had the simplistic theory that nature would reach a point of stasis, stability, a climax forest for example. Now we know better. Heraclitus was right, all is flux.
From the wilderness.net website: ” 54 areas (9.1 million acres) in 13 states were designated as wilderness. This law established these areas as part of the National Wilderness Preservation System. Since 1964, the NWPS has grown almost every year and now includes 758 areas (109,511,038.000 acres) in 44 states and Puerto Rico. In 1980, the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) added over 56 million acres of wilderness to the system, the largest addition in a single year. 1984 marks the year when the most new wilderness areas were added”.
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