Wilderness50

50 years ago this week, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act, which increased protections for federal roadless areas "for the permanent good of the whole people." Wilderness, as defined by the act, is an "area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain."

President Johnson signing the wilderness Act
Photo: National Park Service

Howard Zahniser, an active conservationist and a founder of the Wilderness Society, drafted the first form of the legislation in the 1950s. While he wanted to protect the natural world, he disliked writing legislative language and even commented that he would rather write it as a poem. 

Howard Zahniser
Photo: Wilderness Land Trust

Zahniser's inclination to write poetry about the pristine lands he was trying to protect was natural. Many conservationists see the environmental movement as having roots in the early 19th century Transcendentalism of Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Transcendentalists emphasized the importance of nature for the good of the human soul and Zahniser incorporated this into the legislation. 

Henry David Thoreau

Photo: Library of Congress

In the last half century, the Wilderness Act has designated more than 100 million acres of public lands as "wilderness," most of it in Alaska. To celebrate the 50th anniversary of one of the most influential laws protecting the environment from development, the Smithsonian is featuring photos of wilderness areas taken by people who visited, but did not remain: http://wilderness.smithsonian.com