Defining Wilderness WLC-03

But even as remote as some places are, are they wilderness?

That depends on your definition of wilderness. Is wilderness where no mark of man exists?  

 Near earth orbit is littered with space junk. The moon has foot prints, tire tracks, and abandoned astro-gear that millennia may not erase. Even the outer edge of our solar system has dying radioactive probes marking man’s conquest for more space and more knowledge.

 If wilderness does not mean there is no evidence of man, then what is its definition?

The Wilderness Act of 1964 say in part “A wilderness …is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” 

So, according to this definition, as long as man does not control the plant and animal life nor the landscape, and he does not live there, it is wilderness.

 Following this definition, just inside the east entrance to the Everglades National Park is almost wilderness. At night you can see the city lights, airplanes circle in their approach to Miami, you can smell the sugar cane refinery, and you can hear the farm tractors in nearby fields. Thousands of people drive the blacktop road to Flamingo every year, but that does not disqualify it from being called wilderness under this definition. However, the fact that rangers live within the park, as per this definition, disqualifies it as wilderness.  

 The definition does not say there should be no evidence of man, but that there is no control by man. 

That eliminates the National Forests that are manipulated by silviculturists to produce the best wood for their patron lumber companies. That eliminates most National Parks because the Civilian Conservation Corps built trails and manipulated streams and build roads to allow the masses to experience a controlled nature with instinct modified wildlife.  

 The thousands of miles of the Colorado, Missouri, Mississippi, and Ohio rivers have been controlled by man for nearly a century, but you can still find wild places along all of them.






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