Wilderness Society: Why We Need Wilderness

Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed."
- Excerpt from The Wilderness Letter , Wallace Stegner, , author and former Wilderness Society Governing Council member

Wilderness offers people solitude, inspiration, natural quiet, a place to get away. At the same time, designated wilderness protects biodiversity, the web of life.

Designated wilderness protects ecological values
vital to all of us:

• Wilderness areas protect watersheds that provide drinking water to many cities and rural communities.
• Wilderness serves as critical habitat for wildlife threatened by extinction.
• Wilderness helps filter and improve the quality of our air.
• Wilderness areas maintain gene pools that help to protect biodiversity -- the "web of life," and provide natural laboratories for research.
• Wilderness helps meet the nation's increasing demand for outdoor recreation: hiking, hunting, fishing, bird watching, canoeing, camping, and many other activities.
• Wilderness is a haven from the pressures of our fast-paced, industrialized society, providing places where we can seek relief from the noise, haste, and crowds that too often confine us.