Uploaded September 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This anniversary year of the 1964 Wilderness Act invites us to reflect on what wilderness means to us. The Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System to assure that expanding settlement and growing mechanization did not lead to the modification of all areas in our nation. And today, the Wilderness System includes over 800 areas across the country, with the USDA Forest Service administering more than half.
But long before the Wilderness Act, and long before we were even using the word "wilderness", these lands were used and stewarded by Indigenous communities. This makes designated wilderness areas both Tribal homelands and places for recreation.
Take a walk with the Forest Service's Jamie Hinrichs as she shares a poem she wrote about thinking about what wilderness means, helping us discover all the ways that Nature Connects Us.
(USDA Forest Service Video by Jamie Hinrichs)
This anniversary year of the 1964 Wilderness Act invites us to reflect on what wilderness means to us. The Wilderness Act created the National Wilderness Preservation System to assure that expanding settlement and growing mechanization did not lead to the modification of all areas in our nation. And today, the Wilderness System includes over 800 areas across the country, with the USDA Forest Service administering more than half.
But long before the Wilderness Act, and long before we were even using the word "wilderness", these lands were used and stewarded by Indigenous communities. This makes designated wilderness areas both Tribal homelands and places for recreation.
Take a walk with the Forest Service's Jamie Hinrichs as she shares a poem she wrote about thinking about what wilderness means, helping us discover all the ways that Nature Connects Us.
(USDA Forest Service Video by Jamie Hinrichs)
