Wilderness: History and Value History From the very beginning of this nation's history, wilderness has been a fundamental ingredient. The first European settlers found and battled against it upon their arrival. The western explorers and wagon trains sought to wrestle farmland from the wilderness's grip to build cities, farms and homes. It was not until the reality of its finite availability, that it was viewed as anything other than an opponent and menace. These changing attitudes began
Environment Movement began with the passing of the Wilderness Act of 1964. The act established a National Wilderness System and created 9 millions acres. The main influence and writer of the act Howard Zahniser, who felt that we needed wilderness as it takes us away from technology that gives us perspective of mastering the environment rather than being a part of it (Nash, 2001). With the passing of the act Americans questioned both preservation and conservation. A new culture emerged in America
at the signing of the final Wilderness Act, President Lyndon B. Johnson said, ”If future generations are to remember us with gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them something more than the miracles of technology” (Famous Quotes). The Wilderness Act started with Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, who conserved 230 million acres of public land. The Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS), which protects wilderness areas designated for preservation in their natural condition
Wilderness Protection is crucial to our environment, without it we would not have clean air to breathe or clean water to drink. In 1962 President Lyndon B. Johnson passed the Congressional Wilderness Act to help keep wildlife and its environmental areas protected. This act is the greatest form of protection. The Wilderness Act is recognized as the value of saving “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” There
project began to create a centralized collection of information about our nation’s wilderness. Before the proposal of the Wilderness Information Network, information on the wilderness was spread across multiple sites controlled by different branches of the government that held relevant information. The Wilderness Information Network (WIN) sought to unite the information in a way that the general public, wilderness visitors, scientists, managers, educators, legislators, and government agents would
less resources at our disposal, but we are coming closer to finding potential alternatives to energy sources. Michael P. Nelson talks about the future generation argument, which I believe is the strongest of his arguments when it comes to wilderness preservation. Wildernesses have many different assets to offer that are not only good for humans financially, but also mentally and physically. Depriving future generations of these assets would a cruel and unfair thing to do. Michael P. Nelson writes
the destination from the beginning, has seldom been talked about through the transformation of wilderness. However, the destination is well recognized throughout written history. During the Colonialization of America, there was a belief of wilderness being the land of the devil (Nash, 2012). Which continued to evolve into a legal stance known as The Wilderness Act of 1964, in which it describes wilderness as “area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent
Importance of Wilderness Areas Wilderness areas are a very important to future generations. WThe wilderness is designed to protect and preserve scenic lands. Without protected wilderness areas, animals that are native to the area will not have a habitat; future generations won’t have clean air to breathe, fresh water to drink, or natural areas to enjoy or escape to. Therefore, it is important that citizens today work to protect and preserve the wilderness areas that do exist. Why should we protect
In Wallace Stegner’s “Wilderness Letter,” he is arguing that the countries wilderness and forests need to be saved. For a person to become whole, Stegner argues that the mere idea of the wild and the forests are to thank. The wilderness needs to be saved for the sake of the idea. He insinuates that anyone in America can just think of Old faithful, Mt. Rainier, or any other spectacular landform, even if they have not visited there, and brought to a calm. These thoughts he argues are what makes
conviction that wilderness is both a historical and cultural construct, I believe that such a definition requires an examination of the events and processes that led to the creation of this particular artifact,” (Spence p.5). This provides a basis for the perspectives of Mark David Spence and William Cronon in their respective works, Dispossessing the Wilderness: Indian Removal and the Making of the National Parks and “The Trouble with Wilderness.” The majority of nineteenth century preservation dealt with