Wilderness Pros And Cons

Introduction.
The year of 2014 is tied with the greatest 50th anniversary of landmark of the whole conservation history of the USA, the Wilderness Act. 50 years ago on September 3, 1964 President Lyndon Johnson signed it into the law. This act actually established a way for Americans to protect and preserve the most valuable wildlands for future generations. For the first time ever, it provided protection for Wilderness in the federal statutes. Moreover, this act created the National Wilderness Preservation System, which includes nowadays approximately 110 million acres of wild American lands, protecting them as designated wilderness whichever means the highest level of protection of the nation’s lands. A designated wilderness prohibits any
Historical and legal background.
In the period of settlement of the United States, it was a huge territory of extensive and undeveloped wildlands. Number of years after the territory of these wildlands unfortunately was significantly reduced. It gave a start to conservation movements at that time. People started to appreciate these values.
During the period from 1950s to 1970s, there was a great rise of society’s concern in clean air and water quality, preservation of wild natural areas. One of the famous cases that gave a great push to conservation movement at those days was Echo Park Dam in Dinosaur National Monument. All these led society to establish these wild public lands as designated wilderness areas. And the most effective way to bring this idea into life was actual enacting a law, which should be passed by Congress and signed by President.
Howard Zahniser wrote the first draft of the Wilderness Act in 1956. The act went through more than 60 drafts before it finally passed. At the end President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the act into law on September 3,
Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management which are under the Department of Interior and the Department of Agriculture. While each land management agency has its own specific duties and objectives, all wilderness-managing agencies are provided by general directions within the Wilderness Act.
The National Park Service was established to protect the nation’s natural, historical, and cultural resources and to provide places for recreation. The National Park Service manages 51 national parks. It also oversees more than 300 national monuments, historic sites, memorials, seashores, and battlefields.
The Forest Service manages national forests and grasslands. It conducts forestry research and works with forest managers on state and private lands. The Forest Service oversees about 200 million acres of national forest and other lands.
The Fish and Wildlife Service conserves the nation’s wild animals and their habitats by managing a system of more than 500 national wildlife refuges and other areas, totaling more than 91 million acres of land and water.
The Bureau of Land Management manages nearly 270 million acres of wilderness and non-wilderness land. Among other activities, the Bureau of Land Management conserves these lands and their historical and cultural resources for the public’s use and