Celebrating 60 years of Wilderness in the South

“It is a really rugged and dramatic canyon.” 

On a hot summer day, senior attorney Sam Evans, who leads SELC’s National Forest and Parks Program, was zig-zagging along trails in North Carolina’s Linville Gorge Wilderness Area.   

“There are no straight lines on the gorge,” Evans said with a laugh. “We’ve spent 30 minutes on this hike and can still see where we came from.”   

The trail is crowded with brush but suddenly opens to sweeping views of the 2,000 foot-deep gorge. 

There is no place like it in the Southeast.

Sam Evans, Leader of SELC’s National Forest and Parks Program

That’s why he says the area is a perfect example of what Congress was envisioning when they passed the Wilderness Act, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary – the motivation behind Evans’ visit.  

“There’s a good reason that this was one of the very first Wilderness designations. It is exactly what the drafters of the Wilderness Act had in mind when they decided what Wilderness meant,” Evans said.   

Six decades of Wilderness

On September 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law, a groundbreaking moment in the fight to preserve the nation’s most important public lands. North Carolina’s Linville Gorge and Shining Rock Wilderness were two of the original Wilderness Areas created by the landmark law.  

For the last six decades, the Wilderness Act has offered the highest level of protection public lands can receive. Wilderness Areas provide unmatched experiences of solitude, offer incredible hiking trails, filter water for downstream communities, and create habitat for rare and endangered plants and animals.

A Wild legacy in the South 

In the 60 years since its passing, the number of Wilderness Areas have grown significantly. Today, there are more than 800 Wilderness Areas scattered across the country, adding up to an impressive 111 million acres. These areas are in National Parks, National Forests, National Wildlife Refuges, and Bureau of Land Management districts across the country.  

But while the South is home to some of the nation’s most iconic Wilderness Areas – including Georgia’s Okefenokee Swamp and parts of Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park – it has lagged behind when it comes to creating new Wilderness. Less than three percent of the nation’s Wilderness acres are in the South.  

“This is especially concerning because the South could benefit the most from preserving our public lands from development,” Evans said. “It’s the fastest growing region in the country, has a long history of extractive industry, and its landscapes are facing increasing threats from climate change and reckless logging projects.” 

That’s why SELC, our partners, and our allies on Capitol Hill are continuing to push for more public lands designations, which can only be created by Congress. This includes the decades-long push to create the Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area, which would include several embedded Wilderness Areas. The proposal would strengthen protections for more than 92,000 acres of public land in Virginia’s George Washington National Forest. The area – which is separate from Shenandoah National Park – boasts more than 150 miles of hiking trails and some of the most spectacular, uninterrupted views in the Southern Appalachians. The proposal has the support of more than 400 local businesses, organizations, and faith groups and has been championed by Senator Tim Kaine.  

And these efforts are paying off. In 2018, Congress passed the Tennessee Wilderness Act, designating more than 20,000 acres of new Wilderness in the Volunteer State.  

The future of Wilderness 

As the Wilderness Act celebrates 60 years, there are still questions about what the law should look like in the future.  

For instance, in the law’s own words, it seeks to protect lands “untrammeled by man,” an idea that we now know is a myth: Before they were forced out, Indigenous people had been living in these landscapes for millennia. That raises important questions about the concept of Wilderness, and how the law can allow for Tribal stewardship practices.  

“It’s vital that we separate the mythology of wilderness from the legal tool of Wilderness designation,” Evans said. “We can’t ignore how our ideas of ‘natural’ places have been used to dispossess the people who were living here. But we also can’t afford to lose our most powerful tool to protect intact landscapes from development. It’s up to us to reshape what that tool means.”   

You don’t have to look too far to know what would have happened without Wilderness protections.

Sam Evans, National Forest and Parks Program Leader

Wilderness Areas, like so many parts of the South, are also facing unprecedented threats from climate change. What does Wilderness look like in the age of rising temperatures, increased flooding, and longer droughts? 

While we work toward answers to those questions, the law remains one of the most important tools for preserving public lands in the South.  

“You don’t have to look too far to know what would have happened to this place without Wilderness protections,” Evans said while looking over Linville Gorge. “On the far side of the canyon, there has been a lot of private home development, and it’s almost certain there would have been more roads and paved paths through this area. A place this beautiful is going to draw development, and that really would have been a shame.” 

To put it simply, without the Wilderness Act, future generations wouldn’t be able to experience incredible places like Linville Gorge like we do today.