16 U.S.C. § 1131

National Wilderness Preservation System

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(a) Establishment; Congressional declaration of policy; wilderness areas; administration for public use and enjoyment, protection, preservation, and gathering and dissemination of information; provisions for designation as wilderness areas

In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness. For this purpose there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System to be composed of federally owned areas designated by Congress as “wilderness areas”, and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness; and no Federal lands shall be designated as “wilderness areas” except as provided for in this chapter or by a subsequent Act.

(b) Management of area included in System; appropriations

The inclusion of an area in the National Wilderness Preservation System notwithstanding, the area shall continue to be managed by the Department and agency having jurisdiction thereover immediately before its inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System unless otherwise provided by Act of Congress. No appropriation shall be available for the payment of expenses or salaries for the administration of the National Wilderness Preservation System as a separate unit nor shall any appropriations be available for additional personnel stated as being required solely for the purpose of managing or administering areas solely because they are included within the National Wilderness Preservation System.

A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An area of wilderness is further defined to mean in this chapter an area of undeveloped Federal land retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to preserve its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

(Pub. L. 88–577, § 2, Sept. 3, 1964, 78 Stat. 890.)Statutory Notes and Related SubsidiariesShort Title

Pub. L. 88–577, § 1, Sept. 3, 1964, 78 Stat. 890, provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Wilderness Act’.”

Notes of Decisions

Cited in 205 cases (8 in the last 5 years), 1965–2026 · leading case: Oregon Nat. Desert Ass'n v. Bureau of Land Mgmt., 625 F.3d 1092 (9th Cir. 2010).

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Oregon Nat. Desert Ass'n v. Bureau of Land Mgmt., 625 F.3d 1092 (9th Cir. 2010). · cites it 9× “Congress identified the conservation of such lands as a national priority in the Wilderness Act of 1964 (the “Wilderness Act”), 16 U.S.C. § 1131 et seq. See also Wilderness Soc’y v.”

Oregon Nat. Desert Ass'n v. Bureau of Land Mgmt., 531 F.3d 1114 (9th Cir. 2008). · cites it 9× “Congress identified the conservation of such lands as a national priority in the Wilderness Act of 1964 (the “Wilderness Act”), 16 U.S.C. §§ 1131 et seq. See also Wilderness Soc’y v.”

The Wilderness Soc'y Alaska Ctr. for the Env't v. United States Fish & Wildlife Serv., 353 F.3d 1051 (9th Cir. 2003). · cites it 4× “” 16 U.S.C. § 1131 (a). Congress thereby expressed support for the principle that wilderness has value to society that requires conservation and preservation.”

Wilderness Soc'y v. United States Dep't of the Interior, 344 F. Supp. 2d 1 (D.D.C. 2004). · cites it 3× “” 16 U.S.C. § 1131 (c). In 1976, Congress broadened the scope, of the Wilderness Act’s inventory requirements through the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (“FLPMA”), 43 U.”

High Sierra Hikers Ass'n v. Blackwell, 390 F.3d 630 (9th Cir. 2004). · cites it 3× “” 16 U.S.C. § 1131 (a). The Act established a National Wilderness Preservation System composed of “wilderness areas” which “shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as…”

Sierra Club v. Block, 622 F. Supp. 842 (D. Colo. 1985). · cites it 11× “890 , 16 U.S.C. §§ 1131 et seq. It is further asserted that federal defendants have failed to claim these reserved water rights in violation of their duties under 16 U.”

Drakes Bay Oyster Co. v. Sally Jewell, 747 F.3d 1073 (9th Cir. 2013). · cites it 2× “’” 16 U.S.C. § 1131 (a). Such areas are to “be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness, and so as to provide for the protection of these areas [and] the preservation of…”

Navajo Nation v. United States Forest Serv., 535 F.3d 1058 (9th Cir. 2008). · cites it 2× “§ 497b; the Wilderness Act, 16 U.S.C. § 1131 et seq.; and the Multiple-Use Sustained-Yield Act of 1960, 16 U.”

State of Utah v. Andrus, 486 F. Supp. 995 (D. Utah 1979). · cites it 6× “Based on this review BLM is to recommend to the President whether or not each such area should be preserved as wilderness according to the provisions of the Wilderness Act ( 16 U.S.C. § 1131 et seq. [1974]). During this period of review BLM is to manage the lands so as to…”

Lyng v. Nw. Indian Cemetery Prot. Assn., 485 U.S. 439 (1988). · cites it 2× “; the Wilderness Act, 16 U. S. C. § 1131 et seq.; and the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, 33 U.”

Wyoming v. United States Dep't of Agric., 277 F. Supp. 2d 1197 (D. Wyo. 2003). · cites it 5× “16 U.S.C. § 1131 (a). In 1967, the Forest Service embarked on the Roadless Area Review Evaluation (“RARE I”), which was a nationwide inventory of the National Forest System to identify areas that could be designated as *1205 “wilderness” pursuant to the Wilderness Act.”

Norton v. S. Utah Wilderness All., 542 U.S. 55 (2004). “§ 1782(a); see 16 U.S.C. § 1131 (c). As the name suggests, WSAs (as well as certain wild lands identified prior to the passage of FLPMA) have been subjected to further examination and public comment in order to evaluate their suitability for designation as wilderness.”

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— 16 U.S.C. § 1131(a) — 1 case

Minnesota Pub. Interest Rsch. Grp. v. Butz, 401 F. Supp. 1276 (D. Minnesota 1975).

— 16 U.S.C. § 1131(c) — 2 cases

Wilderness Watch v. Iwamoto, 853 F. Supp. 2d 1063 (W.D. Wash. 2012).

Minnesota Pub. Interest Rsch. Grp. v. Butz, 401 F. Supp. 1276 (D. Minnesota 1975).

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