On September 3, 1964, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law – establishing a National Wilderness Preservation System -- “for the use and enjoyment of the American people.” The Act provided for Congress to add new areas to the system.
During 2024, as the Wilderness Act turns 60, we reflect on the historic value of this major American cultural and environmental landmark. Sierra Club, other wilderness groups, and the four federal wilderness management agencies will use the big anniversary to publicize wilderness values and to educate a broader public about the benefits of wilderness.
The 1964 Wilderness Act declared it to be the policy of our nation “to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness”. Wilderness designation provides the strongest and most permanent protection of our laws for Wilderness values such as adventure, solitude, spiritual communion with and respect for nature, a respite from the pressures of civilization, clean air and water, scenery, wildlife, and scientific understanding of how the natural world works when left alone--free from human control, or untrammeled.” Today, our national 30 by 30 campaign points to an ever more urgent need to use wilderness to preserve threatened wildlife habitat. And today, working with Indigenous Nations and other diverse groups, we seek to make wilderness more inclusive and welcoming to all.
By law, only Congress can designate wilderness. But it was the voices of Americans that convinced Congress over these 60 years to expand the initial 9.1 million acres of wilderness in 54 national forest areas in 13 states to 111 million acres with 806 areas in 44 states and Puerto Rico -- in national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges and western Bureau of Land Management lands.
Uniquely American, wilderness is a great social and environmental achievement by which our nation agreed to restrain in special wild places the “normal” trend toward development —so that nature can dominate here forever—with people who live or visit here doing so in profound harmony with nature.
While Sierra Club began long before the Wilderness Act was signed, the basic principles underlying the Act are also the founding principles of the Sierra Club--preserving wild places free from development. And Sierra Club has played a big role in the national wilderness effort from the start--hosting a series of biennial wilderness conferences and helping pass the 1964 bill and the many bills since then for individual states or groups of states. The Sierra Club and its outings program continue to promote protection for more places.
In 1964, in the original act, thirteen states had wilderness areas designated—Forest Service lands that the agency had previously administratively managed as “wild” or “primitive”. Only two of those states were east of the Mississippi—North Carolina and New Hampshire. But advocates convinced Congress to pass a steady stream of additional Wilderness Acts, mostly for areas within a single state; and this process continues.
The United States Congress designated Indiana’s only wilderness area, the Charles C. Deam Wilderness, in 1982 and it has 12,463 acres, managed by the Forest Service. As recently as half a century ago, 81 farms dotted the area, every ridge was planted in corn or hay, and 57 miles of roads traversed the higher ground. But now, although the landscape still shows evidence of human alterations, the Wilderness is slowly returning to its natural wild state and provides an outstanding example of natural restoration. Bird species, including flycatchers, scarlet tanagers, red-eyed vireos, hawks, and woodpeckers now thrive in the gradually thickening forest. Among the reptiles you’ll find are the poisonous timber rattlesnake and the copperhead.
Named for the first Indiana State Forester, the Charles C. Deam Wilderness is bordered on the north by the watery Middle Fork State Wildlife Refuge. The Wilderness is divided into a northern and smaller southern section by the Tower Ridge Road, and the road right-of-way remains non-Wilderness. The Charles C. Deam Wilderness offers 36 miles of trails for hiking, backpacking, and horse riding through scenic hard- wood forest and varied terrain. Old roads can be followed on foot off of Tower Ridge Road into the Wilderness. Horses are required to stay on designated trails only. Blackwell Campground is maintained at the western end of the road. Horse-packing and hunting are allowed throughout the area. While this is Indiana’s only federally protected wild place, Indiana has many state lands that provide natural areas. Sierra Club Hoosier Chapter Vice Chair of the Executive Committee Lora Kemp proposes: “The 60th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act gives us good motivation to work on saving more wilderness areas in our National Forest and create more wild areas in our state forests as well. In Indiana, the ongoing battle to save public land from commercial logging has been an uphill trudge to say the least. These are OUR PUBLIC LANDS.
With Climate Change impacting Indiana’s forests, preserving habitat is crucial to preserving species. Not every inch of Public Land needs to be considered “Commercial Timber Forests: some areas need to be set aside for nature. At one time, of the 158,000 acres of Indiana State Forest Land, 60,000 acres were set aside for no logging, for preservation of species both flora & fauna; now only 4,000 acres, of Indiana’s 158,000 acres, are free from logging. That is only three percent of OUR PUBLIC LAND set aside for nature & future generations. We can do better than that -- for our wildlife, ecology, hydrology, & for our children & grandchildren.
Finding hope in the Wilderness Act inspires us to work with our state legislators to prepare a bill to to save “Wild Areas” in Indiana’s State Forests that promote the 30x30 Initiative to expand habitat protection. It is never too late to preserve wilderness and wild areas -- for the “wild” in all of us.”
Please contact Lora Kemp at lorakemp1221@gmail.com if you wish to help in this effort.
For more information on our national wilderness system, please visit https://wilderness.net/visit-wilderness/find-a-wilderness.php. And, for more on the 60th anniversary, also visit: https://wilderness.net/wilderness-60/default.php
Vicky Hoover
Senior Wilderness Volunteer, Sierra Club
Co-coordinator Wilderness60