Wild...
By Law and Definition
The Wilderness
Act of 1964 (16
USC 1131 et seq.) The Act defines wilderness as: a
tract of undeveloped federal land of primeval character and without permanent
improvements or human habitation; an area where the earth and its community of
life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not
remain; where the forces of nature predominate and the imprint of human
activities is substantially unnoticeable; which provides outstanding
opportunities for solitude and unconfined and primitive type of recreation.
It directs such areas to be managed:
for use and enjoyment in ways that leave them unimpaired as wilderness; for
the protection and preservation of their wilderness values; and for acquiring
information to facilitate preservation and public use of wilderness. Henry David Thoreau
“ Our lives…need the
relief of where the pine flourishes and the jay still screams.”
“All good things are
wild and free.”
“A town is saved, not
more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround
it.”
“In wildness is
the preservation of the world.” “Whoso walketh
in solitude, “…in the
wilderness, I find something more dear and connate than in the streets or
villages…in the woods we return to reason and faith.”
Aldo
Leopold
“The
richest value of wilderness lie not in the days of Daniel Boone, nor
even in the present but rather in the future.” “The good life on any
river may…depend on the perception of its music, and the preservation
of some music to perceive.”
“…perhaps
our grandsons, having never seen a wild river, will never miss the
chance to set a canoe in singing waters…glad I shall never be young
without wild country to be young in.”
“Wilderness
is the raw material of which man has hammered the artifact called
civilization.”
“Wilderness
areas are first of all a series of sanctuaries for the primitive arts of
wilderness travel, especially canoeing and packing.”
“Wilderness
is a continuous stretch of country preserved in its natural state, open
to lawful hunting and fishing, big enough to absorb a two weeks’ pack
trip, and kept devoid of roads, artificial trails, cottages, or other
works of man.”
“Wilderness,
then, assumes unexpected importance as a laboratory for the study of
land – health.”
“Wilderness
is a resource which can shrink but not grow…the creation of new
wilderness in the full sense of the world is impossible.”
Wild...
By Law and Definition
For Federal Lands
Secures "for the American people of
present and future generation the benefits of an enduring resource of
wilderness." The Act provides for the designation of wilderness areas,
defines what wilderness is and provides direction for wilderness area
management.
(Upon signing of the
Wilderness Act, 1964)
"If future generations are to remember us with
gratitude rather than contempt, we must leave them more than the miracles of
technology. We must leave them a glimpse of the world as it was in the
beginning, not just after we got through with it."
Wild... By
verse, philosophy and knowing
“I would not have…every
part of a man cultivated, any more than I would have every acre of earth.”
“Into the woods we
return to reason and faith.”
And inhabiteth the wood,
Choosing light, wave, rock, and bird,
Before the money-loving herd,
Into that forester shall pass,
From these companions, power and grace.”