It is sad that although in a rural area, many of us don’t take the time to enjoy the great outdoors that exists just a short distance from our front doors. This year marks the 50th anniversary of the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act, the conservation bill that enshrined our nation’s most pristine wildlands for future generations. The 1964 Wilderness Act, written by The Wilderness Society’s Howard Zahniser, created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which protects nearly 110 million acres of wilderness areas from coast to coast.
Key language in the Act:
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized 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.”
“A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized 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.”
“An area of wilderness is further defined to mean an area of underdeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions.”
Among the wilderness areas preserved are Death Valley, Frank Church-River of No Return, Selway-Bitterroot, Bob Marshall, Olympic, Sequoia-Kings, Buffalo National River, Canyon, John Muir, Teton, Gila, and Pecos National Wilderness Areas. There are eight National Wilderness Areas in Missouri, including Piney Creek Wilderness.
Granted, this act dealt with such treasures as mountains, canyons and rivers. But, we have wilderness all around us that is beautiful in its own right.
Take this time to celebrate what we have done right to save our wilderness in the past 50 years and remind ourselves of all that we can achieve in the next half century. It only takes us leaving our front doors and taking in the grandeur that surrounds us.
Dale Hogg