PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

Congress set up the National Wilderness Preservation System to keep some federal lands wild for people now and in the future. It requires that certain federal areas be kept natural for public use and enjoyment, protected so they stay wild, and studied with information shared about how they are used. Only Congress can officially name federal land as a "wilderness area" under this law or a later law. Areas added keep being run by the same federal department or agency that managed them before, unless Congress says otherwise. No separate federal money is provided just for running the System as its own unit, and no extra pay or staff funds are allowed only because an area is inside the System. A "wilderness" means undeveloped federal land with no permanent buildings or homes, where nature largely shapes the place and people are visitors. It generally must: be mostly influenced by natural forces; offer solitude or primitive, unconfined recreation; be at least 5,000 acres or big enough to stay unspoiled; and it may have special natural, scientific, scenic, or historic features.

Title 16, §1131

Conservation, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Establishment; Congressional declaration of policy; wilderness areas; administration for public use and enjoyment, protection, preservation, and gathering and dissemination of information; provisions for designation as wilderness areas

In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as “wilderness areas”, and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness; and no Federal lands shall be designated as “wilderness areas” except as provided for in this chapter or by a subsequent Act.

(b)Management of area included in System; appropriations

The inclusion of an area in the National Wilderness Preservation System notwithstanding, the area shall continue to be managed by the Department and agency having jurisdiction thereover immediately before its inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System unless otherwise provided by Act of Congress. No appropriation shall be available for the payment of expenses or salaries for the administration of the National Wilderness Preservation System as a separate unit nor shall any appropriations be available for additional personnel stated as being required solely for the purpose of managing or administering areas solely because they are included within the National Wilderness Preservation System.

(c)“Wilderness” defined

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 in this chapter an area of undeveloped 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 and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

Pub. L. 88–577, § 1, Sept. 3, 1964, 78 Stat. 890, provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Wilderness Act’.”

§1131 National Wilderness Preservation System

Summary

Title 16, §1131

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Short Title

Citations & Metadata