The 1964 Wilderness Act, from “wilderness idea” to governmental oversight and protection of wilderness

Abstract

This paper aims to trace the evolution of the debate over wilderness protection, from the “idea” of wilderness to a national policy of preservation signed into law by President Johnson in 1964. Central to this evolution was Wilderness Society’s activist Howard Zahniser, who started campaigning actively for a wilderness preservation law in the late 1940s. Relying on a pragmatic approach, Zahniser and advocates of wilderness protection favored debates and compromises, including with natural resource industries, in an effort to conciliate both economic uses and protection. The wide bipartisan support that this endeavor resulted in is remarkable in light of the polarization of American environmental politics from the late 1970s on. Most significantly, the Wilderness Act enlarged federal responsibilities in terms of wilderness preservation, especially as it gave Congress power to designate wilderness areas through the National Wilderness Preservation System, therefore reinforcing the federal presence in the American West.

Keywords

• wilderness
• Wilderness Act
• bipartisanship
• federal government
• American West