Natural Resources Law CenterWilderness Areas and Alternative Special Designations
| If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the beginning, not just after we got through with it. |
— President Lyndon B.
Johnson |
In 1964, the United States Congress enacted the Wilderness Act, P.L. 88-557, at 16 U.S.C. sections 1131 to 1136, creating a new system to preserve wild lands in their natural state. In that legislation, establishing the National Wilderness Preservation System, the Congress immediately designated 51 national forest areas – lands already classified as "wilderness", "wild", or "canoe" – as wilderness and directed the Secretaries of the Interior and Agriculture to survey their lands for other areas that could be added to the wilderness system. The National Wilderness Preservation System now includes over 105 million acres in over 600 wilderness areas from coast to coast. About 54 percent of the total acreage is located in Alaska and another 42 percent is in 11 western states of the lower 48. See Wilderness.net for maps, data and many links on lands in the National Wilderness Preservation System.
Wilderness is a place “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor.” Wilderness is undeveloped land that retains its primeval character, absent human improvements or human habitation. Generally, wilderness areas are at least 5,000 acres in size and offer outstanding opportunities for solitude or primitive recreation. Often they contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, historical, scenic, or educational value. The lands are administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people so as to “leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness.” To protect these lands, the Wilderness Act prohibits many activities that would impair the areas' wilderness character, but does not limit activities such as hunting and fishing. Both the original act and subsequent legislation creating additional wilderness areas grandfathers “special uses” that pre-date designation, such as pre-existing irrigation systems and grazing.
Wilderness is only one of several special designations available to the Congress and the President for protecting Federal lands. Like wilderness areas, some areas are authorized or managed under general statutes:
- National Monuments – The President can protect historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest on federal lands as national monuments under authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906, 16 U.S.C. 431 - 433. The Congress also designated national monuments through monument-specific legislation. The U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Land Management manage over 100 national monuments.
- National Parks – The Congress designates and the National Park Service manages national parks to conserve scenery, natural and historic objects, and wildlife and to provide for their enjoyment while leaving them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Park Service Organic Act of 1916 (16 U.S.C. 1).
- Wild and Scenic Rivers –The Congress designates wild and scenic rivers to protect outstanding scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife, historic, cultural, or other values and to preserve rivers in their free-flowing condition for the benefit of present and future generations. Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968, 16 U.S.C. 1271 – 1287.
The Congress also creates protected areas on an individual basis through special legislation:
- National Conservation Areas (NCAs) – The Congress designates NCAs to conserve, protect, enhance, and manage public land areas for the benefit and enjoyment of present and future generations. NCAs feature exceptional natural, recreational, cultural, wildlife, aquatic, archeological, paleontological, historical, educational or scientific resources. NCAs are managed by various agencies.
- National Recreation Areas (NRAs) – The Congress designates NRAs to protect important recreation, scenic, scientific, and natural values for the enjoyment of current and future generations. Various agencies manage these areas for water- and land-based recreational activities.
Wilderness and Special Land Designation Reports
In celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, the Natural Resources Law Center initiated study of special provisions of the Wilderness Act and other wilderness designating statutes. In addition, the Center prepared a series of case studies describing management of various areas of special designations and comparing their management to areas managed as wilderness. The following reports are available in pdf format:
Special Use Provisions in Wilderness Legislation
This 2004 study reviews the original Wilderness Act, as well as individual wilderness designations through the 107th Congress, for special provision language regarding hard rock mining, mineral leasing, water rights and water projects, grazing, aircraft and motorboat (non-military) access, access to inholdings, commercial services, military activities, access for health and safety, and other special uses. The report discusses the progression of special use language over the last 40 years and includes an Excel table link to [SUP Table]summarizing the language of 75 wilderness statutes for the 11 western states.
Special Uses in Wilderness Areas: Management Survey
The Center conducted two surveys on implementation of special use provisions in 2004 and 2005. This report summarizes the results of 174 surveys completed on BLM, Forest Service, National Park Service, and Fish and Wildlife Service managed wilderness areas in the 11 western states. The surveys addressed general management, state wildlife management, access to inholdings, military use, operational facilities, minerals, and commercial livestock grazing.
Protective Designations on Federal Lands: Case Studies of National Conservation Areas, National Monuments, National Parks, National Recreation Areas and Wilderness Areas.
The Center prepared six case studies in 2004 and 2005 on management of special designation lands. Four of the case studies describe the management of special status Federal lands (two NCAs, a national park and a NRA.) Two of these four areas include designated wilderness areas. Two additional case studies examine two geographic areas with a variety of congressional designations, including wilderness, within each area. This summary report provides an overview of all six case studies and conclusions drawn from them.
- Hell’s Canyon National Recreation Area
The Congress established the Hells Canyon National Recreation Area in 1975. The area straddles the Snake River which forms the borders of northeastern Oregon and western Idaho. The recreation area is traversed by a wild and scenic river and about one-third is designated as wilderness. The area is managed by the Department of Agriculture, U.S. Forest Service.
- King Range National Conservation Area
In 1970, Congress directed the Secretary of the Interior to establish the King Range National Conservation Area (KRNCA). The area is located in northern California about 200 miles north of San Francisco. Called the “lost coast,” KRNCA includes numerous landscapes ranging from beaches to Douglas fir clad peaks. The KRNCA was the first of the special conservation areas authorized by Congress on Bureau of Land Management lands.
- Saguaro National Park
President Hoover first protected Saguaro National Park as a national monument in 1933. Congress made it a national park in 1994 with two units to the east and west of Tucson, Arizona. The purpose of the designations was to protect the unique Sonoran Desert ecosystem, specifically the dense stands of giant Saguaro Cactus that grow to over 50 feet tall and weigh as much as 10 tons. Almost 80 percent of the park is wilderness.
- Snake River Birds of Prey NCA
The Congress established the Snake River Birds of Prey National Conservation Area in 1993 along the Snake River in southwestern Idaho about 30 miles south of Boise. The area, which supports the greatest concentration of nesting birds of prey in North American, is managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The area includes significant state and privately held inholdings as well as an active military training ground.
- El Malpais Area
In 1987 Congress created three land designations to protect and administer the el malpais (“the badlands”) region south of Grants, New Mexico. The core area is El Malpais National Monument, administered by the National Park Service. Adjacent to and nearly surrounding the National Monument is the El Malpais National Conservation Area (NCA) administered by the Bureau of Land Management. Included within the NCA are the West Malpais and the Cebolla Wilderness Areas and the Chain of Craters Wilderness Study Area.
- Gila Box: Riparian National Conservation Area and Wilderness Areas
The Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area (RNCA) is located in southeastern Arizona about twenty miles northeast of Safford. The RNCA features canyons up to 1,000 feet deep and parts of four perennial waterways: the Gila River, Bonita Creek, Eagle Creek, and the San Francisco River. The Congress designated the RNCA and nearby Fishhooks and Needle’s Eye Wilderness Areas in the Arizona Desert Wilderness Act of 1990. All of these areas are administered by the Bureau of Land Management.
We welcome your comments and corrections on these reports.
Please contact us at:
nrlc@colorado.edu
Natural Resources Law Center
401 UCB, University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado 80309-0401
303-492-1286
