|
WILDERNESS IN AMERICA |
| There are 663 wilderness areas
in the United States covering almost 106 million acres. This is an area
larger than the state of California, or about the size of Oregon and Washington
put together.
Agency # of Areas in Acres
Forest Service 400 34,766,995 Fish & Wildlife Service 71 20,686,134 National Park Service 44 44,048,239
ALASKA In Alaska, there are 58,182,216 acres of wilderness. This represents about 56 % of the wilderness acreage in the United States. Wilderness acreage in Alaska is about equal to the combined land area of the States of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Alaska has a higher percentage of land in wilderness than any other state. Wilderness protection in Alaska is governed by the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, ANILCA. When ANILCA passed, Congress chose to preserve more than 150 million acres in specially protected conservation units. This acreage represents more than 40% of the land area of the State and about 60% of the federal land in Alaska. A successful wilderness proposal
requires support in the affected state; the Bureau will support new wilderness
proposals if there is congressional and state support. |