§ 1131. — National Wilderness Preservation System.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 16USC1131]
TITLE 16--CONSERVATION
CHAPTER 23--NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM
Sec. 1131. National Wilderness Preservation System
(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.
(c) ``Wilderness'' defined
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 underdeveloped
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, Sec. 2, Sept. 3, 1964, 78 Stat. 890.)
Short Title
Section 1 of Pub. L. 88-577 provided that: ``This Act [enacting this
chapter] may be cited as the `Wilderness Act'.''
Section Referred to in Other Sections
This section is referred to in title 43 section 1702.
