Excerpt
Since 1964, the U.S. Congress has designated 91 million acres of land as wilderness. This clearly has been a major land management revolution. How America views and manages its land and natural resources never will be quite the same again. The preservation of wild places with their natural ecosystems has become as high a priority as economic use of the land.
Forever changed is the old attitude that the land and its resources are mainly to be exploited for economic gain. In its place is a new attitude that gives importance to such land uses as finding solitude, experiencing primitive recreation, protecting biological diversity, maintaining gene pools, and establishing natural scientific benchmarks to monitor the health of the planet. As a result, the wilderness revolution has made wilderness a major land allocation in America's national forests, national parks, national wildlife refuges, and public lands. Today, for example, one-fifth of America's national forests and one-half of its national parks are designated as wilderness.
And the revolution continues. In the next few years Congress will add millions of acres to …
Footnotes
Congressman Bruce F. Vento represents the Fifth District in Minnesota and is chairman of the House Subcommittee on National Parks and Public Lands, 812 House Annex 1, Washington, D.C. 20515.
- Copyright 1990 by the Soil and Water Conservation Society
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