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1964 Wilderness Act is the “organic Act” that established
the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) and defined its
purpose. Wilderness designation is a critical first step toward gaining
protection for wilderness. When Congress passes a new wilderness bill
it creates a legal mandate that provides a real opportunity to achieve
long-term protection through good stewardship. But good stewardship
does not happen automatically, and many threats to wilderness can
and do still occur. Dedicated advocates for good stewardship are always
needed to assure that Wilderness continues to exist as more than just
a name on a map. The overarching legal mandate of the Wilderness Act is to preserve the Wilderness character of each area in the NWPS. Preserving Wilderness character is the essential key to keeping alive the very meaning of wilderness in America. Wilderness character is therefore the core concept that should guide all public uses and management decisions in Wilderness. The concepts and principles of Wilderness stewardship revolve around the concept of Wilderness character. They come directly from the Wilderness Act and other writings of the Act’s chief author, Howard Zahniser. These concepts and principles form the statutory direction for wilderness stewardship. They are intended to shape and guide our human interactions with Wilderness. It is not just the physical qualities of the landscape that make Wilderness different, it is the way we relate to Wilderness, the attitude with which we approach these special places, that makes wilderness different from other undeveloped lands such as roadless areas or national park backcountry. Howard Zahniser recognized the transcendent value of Wilderness as an essential touchstone to a larger community of life, a place to reflect and renew our humanity: "We deeply need the humility to know ourselves as the dependent members of a great community of life, and this can indeed be one of the spiritual benefits of a wilderness experience. Without the gadgets, the inventions, the contrivances whereby men have seemed to establish among themselves an independence of nature, without these distractions, to know wilderness is to know a profound humility… to sense dependence and interdependence, indebtedness, and responsibility." Exercising humility and restraint in our interactions with Wilderness is what differentiates ‘stewardship’ from ‘management.’ Stewardship entails carefully protecting and guarding certain values, qualities, and experiences, both tangible and intangible, that exist in Wilderness. In contrast, a management paradigm is generally more premised on selecting human-centered goals and objectives for a landscape, and then actively shaping and manipulating the landscape and its wildlife to achieve those pre-determined goals. Good Wilderness stewardship requires respecting the value of self-willed land, where natural processes prevail and humans do not dominate and control.
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