Tongass National Forest

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Wilderness Areas

Much of the Tongass National Forest looks as it has for centuries. Development came late to Southeast Alaska and it still hasn't penetrated into many of its remote areas. To assure that wilderness remains an important part of Alaska, including Southeast Alaska, Congress has designated almost one third of the Tongass (5.7 million acres) to be managed as wilderness. Wilderness in Alaska Tongass Wilderness Areas

What is Wilderness?

The Wilderness Act of 1964 requires the Forest Service to manage Wilderness Areas "for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use as wilderness...." It is this guarantee for future generations that makes all Wilderness special.

Places such as the Kootznoowoo Wilderness enjoy the highest level of protection possible under federal law. Logging, road-building, the use of motorized equipment, and the construction of permanent structures is generally prohibited.

"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."

Wilderness Act of 1964 (P.L. 88-577)

Wilderness in Alaska

However, exceptions to these rules have been carved out to accomodate historic uses in Alaska.

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) of 1980 established 14 wilderness areas totaling 5.5 million acres. Two of these areas, Admiralty Island and Misty Fiords, were also designated as National Monuments. In 1990, the Tongass Timber Reform Act (TTRA) amended ANILCA and designated five new wilderness areas and one wilderness addition totaling 296,080 acres.

Prior to ANILCA there was no designated wilderness in the Tongass. In ANILCA, Congress reaffirmed and expanded upon the purposes of wilderness as stated in the 1964 Wilderness Act, specifically for wilderness established in Alaska. In recognition of unique situations and established uses in Alaska, ANILCA also provided a number of important specific exceptions to the prohibitions of the Wilderness Act.

Some of these include

• a rural preference for the taking of resources related to the subsistence life-style;
• special access by airplanes, motorboats, snowmachines (during periods of adequate snow cover or frozen river conditions), and nonmotorized surface transportation methods for traditional activities;
• reasonable access to inholdings such as State lands, mining claims, and private lands;
• continued use and maintenance of public use cabins;
• beach log salvage;
• and the use of temporary hunting and fishing facilities.

These exceptions are all further clarified in Chapter 3 of the Tongass Land Management Plan (TLMP) Revision Final Environmental Impact Statement. TLMP is available as a PDF or you can request a copy by contacting sjennings@fs.fed.us or gressler@fs.fed.us.

In most places the exact boundary of the Wilderness Area is not marked; it is your responsibility to know where you are at all times. On the beach, the Wilderness boundary extends to mean high tide.

Any commercial use of Forest Service lands, including guiding, requires a special use permit.