This slide-show was presented by Ralph Swain, Wilderness Program Manager for the USDA Forest Service Rocky Mountain Region, during the WILD9 Wilderness Management Seminar Training (1-3 November 2009). Ralph was a leader in the training, which brought together over 20 wilderness managers from around the world to share knowledge & experiences and learn best-practices in wilderness management.

1. Wilderness ActWilderness Management Seminar Merida, Mexico Ralph Swain R2 Wilderness Program Manager R2 Wild & Scenic Rivers Coordinator rswain@fs.fed.us 303-275-5058

2. It’s not easy to be a wilderness advocate!

3. President Johnson signing The Wilderness Act on September 3, 1964

7. What was the most significant event of 1964? 1964 Ford Mustang

8. “It is our task in our time and in our generation, to hand down undiminished to those who come after us, as was handed down to us by those who came before, the natural wealth and beauty which is ours.” Senator John F. Kennedy

9. John Muir Robert Sterling Yard Aldo Leopold Olaus and Mardy Murie Bob Marshall Teddy Roosevelt

10. “There is a limit to the number of lands of shoreline on the lakes; there is a limit to the number of lakes in existence; there is a limit to the mountainous areas of the world, and there are portions of natural scenic beauty which are God-made and which of a right should be the property of all people.” - Arthur Carhart letter to Aldo Leopold, 1919 Trapper’s Lake –White River NF, Colorado Arthur Carhart

11. Dr. Mark Harvey Professor of History North Dakota State University

12. Frank Church Clinton P. Anderson John Saylor Wayne Aspinall Mardy Murie Alice Zahniser Stewart Udall President Lyndon Johnson Final votes: Senate 73 – 12 House 373 -1

14. The Best Paper We Can Get “Wilderness protection is paper thin, and the paper should be the best we can get — that upon which Congress prints its acts.” David Brower Sierra Club Bulletin 1956

15. Zahnie’s Approach

16. “We are not fighting progress, we are making it.” -Howard Zahniser

18. Displacement of Indigenous Tribes

19. 1864 George P. Marsh – Man and Nature – stop devastation of natural resources

20. 1872 Yellowstone – 1st Natl. Park

21. 1905 National Forest Service established

23. A Human Need Wilderness is “a serious human need rather than a luxury and plaything.” Platform of The Wilderness Society 1935 Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and others

24. WildernessVanishing “The universe of the wilderness … is vanishing with appalling rapidity. It is melting away like some last snowbank on some south-facing mountainside during a hot afternoon in June.” Bob Marshall April 1937

26. No nationwide system of areas

27. No uniform management guidance

28. No commitment to preserve wilderness in perpetuity

29. There Ought to be a Law! “There is no assurance that any one of them or all of them might not be abolished as they were created—by administrative decree. They exist by sufferance and administrativepolicy—not by law.” Kenneth Reid Izaak Walton League of America 1939

32. Uniform management directive

35. 54 areas

36. Only on national forests

37. 13 states, almost all in the West

39. 66 different rewrites of the bill

41. The National Wilderness Preservation System1964-2006 Wilderness Areas Currently there are 707 areas covering 106 million acres

43. Public Lands Management Act of 2009 – P.L. 111-11 President Obama signed the Act on March 30, 2009Designated 52 new areasEnlarged 26 existing wildernessesTotal of 2 million acres to the NWPS

45. In 44 states and Puerto Rico

46. More than half in Alaska (54%)Total: 109,492,591acres

47. R2 Wilderness 5 million acres 46 units: 35 CO 9 WY 1 SD 1 NE

49. Building our Wilderness System – BLM & NPS

54. Bills are More Complex

55. 2. Boundary Location Agencies are recommending “setting the boundaries of … proposed wilderness units back from the edge of roads [and] developed areas…. There is no requirement for that in the Wilderness Act… [It] has the effect of excluding the critical edge of wilderness from full statutory protection ...” Sen. Frank Church 1972

56. Sights and Sounds?

57. 3. Nonconforming Uses “An incredible number of compli-cations and obstacles … arise from the fact that the wilderness idea was born after, rather than before … commercial de-velopment had begun.” Aldo Leopold 1925

58. Motorboats and Portages Nonconforming use allowed by the Wilderness Act

59. Airfields “Mrs. Pfost: I am wondering what your opinion is regarding those airfields that we have in various primitive and possible wilderness areas. Mr. Brower: We understand that, and we approve the accommodation of that kind of use that exists….” David Brower Sierra Club testimony 1962 Nonconforming use allowed by the Wilderness Act

60. Livestock Grazing “Mrs. Pfost: Mr. Brower, what is your opinion of the provision which allows grazing in the areas that have been established previously? Mr. Brower: We … concur in that provision to protect existing rights or privileges.” David Brower Sierra Club testimony 1962 Nonconforming use allowed by the Wilderness Act

62. Encroachment – Night Sky

63. Management Creep

64. Climate Change

67. You are Tomorrow’s Ambassadors