National Wilderness Month 2022: Why Wilderness Matters in the National Parks

President Biden proclaimed September 2022 National Wilderness Month, and the National Park Service joined in, marking the month and the 58th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Over 80 percent of all NPS land is managed as wilderness.

The proclamation put it this way:

"... our Nation's wilderness boasts national treasures that provide opportunities for discovery, wonder, and serenity. They are also the current and ancestral homelands of Tribal Nations and Indigenous peoples, many of whom have deep cultural, historic, and spiritual connections to these places. During National Wilderness Month, let us express gratitude for lands and waters that remain in their natural condition, acknowledge the importance of making public lands accessible to all Americans, and rededicate ourselves to conserving and protecting the earth for future generations."

What the Wilderness Act did

The Wilderness Act of 1964 created the National Wilderness Preservation System, now a network of more than 800 wilderness areas designated by the federal government. Only an act of Congress can designate one, and designation gives federal public land the highest level of legal protection it can have in the United States. Four agencies manage them: the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Forest Service.

America's Wilderness (2 minutes 50 seconds), National Park Service.

More than forested mountains

NPS wilderness protects deserts, alpine meadows, tundra, lava beds, sand dunes, swamps and coasts. Much of it also carries thousands of years of human life, which deepens people's ties to these places. Caring for wilderness builds on that long shared relationship between people and land: the cultural traditions of Indigenous peoples, and of later immigrants, in lands now managed as wilderness predate both the national parks and federal wilderness, and deserve recognition and respect.

What wilderness gives back

Wilderness offers something to everyone:

• places that support mental and physical health;
• clean air and water;
• protected habitat;
• economic vitality for nearby communities.

Taken together, these show that wilderness is good for people, for communities and for the planet.

Taking part

The Park Service invites everyone to celebrate. Its America's Wilderness webisodes offer virtual visits to the wilderness of Fire Island National Seashore, Congaree National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve, and more. Anyone heading out into a wilderness area can help keep it a good experience for all by recreating responsibly and following Leave No Trace principles.

Sources

• National Park Service, "2022 National Wilderness Month Proclamation." https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/2022-national-w-month.htm
• The proclamation: A Proclamation on National Wilderness Month, 2022. Further reading: NPS wilderness, the Wilderness Act, Leave No Trace's seven principles.
• The film, America's Wilderness, is the National Park Service's own, from the NPS video page; the cover is a frame from it. The article's photo of two hikers above the Buffalo National River, credited to Jeff Rose without an NPS credit, is left out.
• Rewritten in hubnx's own words.