Wilderness, the National forests, America's playgrounds

Historic, Archive Document

Do not assume content reflects current
scientific knowledge, policies, or practices.

3£

WILDERNESS

V"'.

• —

The Nationa

AMERICA'S
PLAYGRO

molded by nature;

the province of ivild creatures,
the far retreat of man.

. . . beyond civilisation

All of the sixth day of their wilderness trip they had ridden the wild
summits of the Continental Divide, and horses and men were tiring when
they rounded Palisade Peak and saw the basin a thousand feet below.
Three small lakes gleamed in the afternoon sun, and around them crowded
dark green timber. Rocky peaks hemmed the basin except at its upper
end where a great wall of granite rose sheer. David thought it was the
most beautiful valley he had ever seen.

It took an hour to get down, skirting a snowbank melting in the July
sun, bypassing rimrock, and crossing a slope so steep they had to lead the
horses. Once on the valley floor, they pitched camp by the middle lake.

David broke out fishing gear and climbed toward the granite wall and
the lake at its base. For a moment he stood quietly, enjoying the remote-
ness of the rocky shore. Then deftly he cast in quest of a trout, fishing
waters no other man might fish for months.

"Why wilderness?" a friend in Philadelphia had asked. "Why go
where there's nothing?" David hadn't known how to answer. He had
known only that he wanted something more than food and drink and
the pleasures of vacations he usually took. But he could answer his Phil-
adelphia friend now; he had been beyond civilization.

For the first time he had slept cradled by the earth in a world totally
new to him. He had enjoyed living close to the land, experiencing its
isolation and, standing on lofty peaks or lying warm in his sleeping bag,
listening to its remarkable stillness. In ancient rocks he had glimpsed its
past; in green shoots reaching above decaying vegetation he had seen
the wilderness renewing itself, and in these things he had sensed its link
with things eternal. He had felt his mind and spirit and every faculty
of his body respond to its spell. He had found the wilderness not the
empty land of his friend's imagination, but a land of beauty and life.

The last soft daylight hung over the mountain rim when David started
back to camp. He walked slowly, and turned often to look at the lake.
On the last high rise he turned again, and now the red-gold of the setting
sun reflected from fleecy clouds overhead. The basin filled with the golden
glow, and David knew that one day he must come again to this unnamed

Our Wilderness Heritage

Wilderness is an integral part of our American heritage. Our Nation
was born in wilderness, and from it we took land and materials to build
our country. The freedom of wild lands, their great open spaces, and
their grandeur are interwoven in our history, art, and literature, and have
strongly influenced the shaping of our national character.

The wilderness that witnessed the birth of our Nation and nourished
its growth no longer spreads from ocean to ocean. Neither has it all been
tamed. Many of these untamed lands, majestic samples of primeval
America, are parts of the National Forests of the United States. Here, as
wild and just as free as ever, 14V2 million acres of wilderness in 83 tracts
are held in trust by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service
for the use, enjoyment, and spiritual enrichment of the American people.

Over 35 years ago the Forest Service pioneered in preserving America's
wilderness heritage. Wilderness is irreplaceable and must not all be lost.
Inherent in its primeval character are recreational, scientific, educational,
and historical values of great benefit to the Nation and its people.

The Forest Service bears with pride its stewardship of these unique
lands and has long been dedicated to keeping them intact for this and
future generations of Americans.

-Richard E. McArdle

Chief, Forest Service

U.S. Department of Agriculture

Pioneering a concept

The value of going into the wilderness to refresh the spirit and body
has been understood by men since Biblical times, and before. More re-
cently, men have realized that in the habitable areas of the world wilder-
ness lands might not always be available as a far retreat for mankind.

One of the first Americans to sense in his country's growth a threat to
its wilderness, and to speak out for the preservation of wild lands, was
Henry Thoreau. Even then, just over 100 years ago, the need was not
immediate. Much of the land was still wild. There seemed to be more
space for growing than the country would ever need. But before many
decades passed, our building Nation was reaching toward even the re-
motest of its lands. For a few conservationists who looked to the future,
this was a warning that without protection, none of our lands would
remain forever wild.

Many of these far-sighted individuals were in the Forest Service. Led
by Aldo Leopold, who later was to become one of the Nation's most dis-
tinguished naturalists, their thinking influenced early recognition of wil-
derness values and benefits to the Nation. So began the Forest Service
concept of wilderness land management: that of designating as wilderness
those lands predominantly valuable as wilderness so as to manage and
maintain them indefinitely for their out-of-the-ordinary values.

The Forest Service pioneered this concept in the 1920's. Studies of
wild lands on the National Forests began, and in 1924 a large part of
what is now the Gila Wilderness in New Mexico was set aside as a
special area for the preservation of wilderness. The Gila, the Nation's
first designated wilderness, contains 500,000 acres of primitive American
lands astride the Mogollon and Diablo mountain ranges.

Two years later, parts of the present Boundary Waters Canoe Area
in Minnesota were given special protection. This area, unique among
National Forest lands, includes 887,000 acres of woods, rocky shores,
lakes, and streams — the finest canoe country in America.

Good progress was made in the next dozen years in the monumental
job of studying millions of acres of wilderness-type lands. By 1939 most
of the National Forest acreage primarily valuable as wilderness had
been marked for protection in its primitive state. Since then studies have
been made to determine those areas suitable for reclassification as wilder-
ness. The study and classification of wilderness lands is a continuing
Forest Service task.

Once an area is designated a wilderness by the Secretary of Agriculture
on the recommendation of the Chief of the Forest Service, no permanent
roads may be built into it, nor is mechanized equipment permitted.
Timber cutting and other commercial uses, except already-established
grazing of livestock, are not allowed. Resorts, organization camps, sum-
mer homes, and similar uses are not permitted. Moreover, positive
management in the form of controlled grazing of pack stock, trail build-
ing and maintenance, fire protection, and supervision of use and cleanup
of choice camping areas is necessary to prevent damage to the soil and
vegetation. Such steps keep wilderness in its natural state for the enjoy-
ment of all who wish to journey beyond civilization.

Boundary Waters Canoe Area, Superior National Forest,
Minnesota f— 100472

There are now 83 separate tracts of land, about 8 percent of the more
than 186 million acres of the National Forest System, which are designated
as wilderness and are being managed and protected for their wilderness
values. They are located on parts of 73 National Forests in 14 States and
their combined area, i/\x/2 million acres, equals the total acreage of New
Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. Their management is in-
cluded in the overall program of multiple-use management for the
National Forests.

These National Forest wilderness lands embrace desert country and
brushland, virgin timber stands, great valleys and alpine meadows, and
some of the Nation's loftiest mountains. They contain countless streams
and lakes, and great quantities of pure water flow from wilderness water-
sheds to our cities. They abound in fish, small animals and birds, and
big-game animals such as deer, elk, moose, mountain goats, and bighorn
sheep. Some are the province of the grizzly bear, which must have the
wilderness habitat to survive.

These ancient lands range in size from a few thousand acres to more
than a million. Some are split by deep canyons, or are otherwise dis-
tinguished by geological formations in which can be read the history of
the land. In others are the homes of living glaciers.

But however they have been worn and molded by the elements, how-
ever their features have been torn and twisted and sometimes piled one
upon the other by ancient cataclysms, they all share in common a primeval
character, the identifying mark of wilderness.

The appreciation of wilderness values is an invention of civilization.
Man generally does not recognize such values until he has become sep-
arated from them; that is, when he has become civilized and a member
of a dynamic and complex society.

Primitive man, living deep in the forest and fearing its mysteries, had
little regard for an environment in which his life was constantly endan-
gered. The American pioneer viewed the wilderness first as a land to
be conquered and put to domestic use, for he was confined more by it
than by the villages, roads, and farms he was building.

He was aware of the solitude and beauty of wild forests and the freedom
of untamed lands, but his awareness was blunted; the forests were too
much in abundance and too much a part of his life.

It is only recently in this century that Americans, closely confined by
a highly complex civilization, have begun developing a deeper appreciation
of wilderness.

Many people — those working in historical, scientific, and educational
fields — are interested in these lands in relation to their work. But by far
the most popular appeal of wilderness to Americans is the opportunity
it provides for rugged, primitive outdoor recreation.

Those who go into the American wilderness for recreation — whether
spiritual or physical — are as diverse in character as are the wild lands they
visit. They come from every section of the United States, men and women
of many ages and backgrounds. They come for various reasons; wilder-

ness means many different things to people. And they come prepared.
They have made careful plans and detailed arrangements, both essential
for a successful and enjoyable trip, for in the wilderness their way is the
arduous, virile travel of the pioneers. On foot, on horseback, or by
canoe — there is no other way to travel — they seek out the unusual outdoor
experiences only these primitive lands can give.

They may go into the wilderness to hunt big game or to fish in waters
seldom visited by other fishermen. Perhaps their hobby is photography
and they wish to document America's primitive landscapes or to capture
on film the wild animals and birds. Others may only seek the solitude
of great space and distance. Some may desire to conquer a towering
mountain peak thrust skyward millions of years ago and then, standing
high on the peak, say to themselves that no man has stood here before.

But for most people, it is thrill enough and satisfying enough just to
travel in primitive lands, camping where night falls and enjoying the
soul-healing freedom of living in a world apart from the pressures of
their daily lives.

Whatever his interest, the first-time wilderness visitor will find his days
in the wild lands adding up to an experience of special significance to
him, though perhaps unexplainable to another person. The wilderness
environment will be unlike any he has ever known, and his emotional and
spiritual reactions to it will be completely, uniquely his.

Trail Riders of the Wilderness in the Pecos Wilderness,
Santa Fe National Forest, New Mexico f-483666

Wilderness under Forest Service management

The National Forests are America's playgrounds — but they also are lands
of many other uses. These public lands are producing high-level, sustained
yields of water, timber, forage, wildlife, and forest recreation opportunities of
all kinds, including those enjoyed in wilderness areas.

In the next few years, however, the Nation's rapidly expanding population
will need even greater resource yields from the 155 National Forests in 39 States
and Puerto Rico. This rising need is being met by the Program for the National
Forests. Popularly known as Operation Multiple Use, this program is conserv-
ing the land, the basic resource, while intensifying resource management and
development to produce more forest products and services.

Management for multiple use takes positive action before, not after a need
arises. It is the deliberate and carefully planned integration of various forest
land uses so that each interferes with the others as little as possible and supple-
ments the others as much as possible.

Multiple-use management coordinates the development and use of the re-
newable resources. It calls for sustained yields of the resources at as high a level
of productivity as can be reached without impairment of the land's ability to
produce.

Multiple-use management serves better than any other form of land man-
agement the basic purpose of conservation, which is a social one — the satisfaction
of both the tangible and intangible needs of people.

The guiding principles of multiple-use management insure that all re-
sources, all uses, and all users are considered in developing management plans
for the National Forests. Within this framework and consistent with policy
of over 35 years standing, the Forest Service is protecting and maintaining in
their natural state those parts of the National Forests which have been designated
as wilderness.

Multiple-use management, then, is providing this generation of Americans
with optimum opportunities for wilderness recreation. And for the benefit of
those generations of Americans yet to come, it is making certain that these
irreplaceable wilderness lands shall endure.

Great Gulf Wild Area, White Mountain National Forest,
New Hampshire f-476932

INFORMATION

For detailed information on visiting the National Forest
wilderness, see the wilderness map for the number of the
Forest Service Region administering the wilderness lands
in which you are interested and write to the appropriate
Regional Forester, Forest Service:

1. Federal Building,
Missoula, Mont.

2. Denver Federal Center,
Building 85,

Denver, Colo.

3. New Federal Building,
517 Gold Street, SW.,
Albuquerque, N. Mex.

4. Forest Service Building,
Ogden, Utah

5. 630 Sansome Street,
San Francisco I I, Calif.

6. 729 N.E.Oregon Street,
Post Office Box 4137,
Portland 8, Oreg.

7. 6816 Market Street,
Upper Darby, Pa.

8. 50 Seventh Street,
Atlanta 23, Ga.

9. Carpenter Building,
710 North 6th Street,
Milwaukee 3, Wis.

10. State Capitol Bldg.,
Box 1631,
Juneau, Alaska

For licenses to hunt or fish on the National Forests,
apply to the Fish and Game Department of the State that
includes the area you plan to visit.

GPO 1961 : 0 — 59361 4

Issued June 1 961

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office
Washington 25, D.C. - Price 20 cents