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And there are vastly larger areas of public lands that are not protected under the Wilderness Act (Forest Service, and BLM lands) where human activity is still
by njarboe 7y ago
And there are vastly larger areas of public lands that are not protected under the Wilderness Act (Forest Service, and BLM lands) where human activity is still allowed. These could be managed in some way like the article advocates.
I think that is article is a good one if one takes away from it the idea that humans have had an influence over almost all of the Earth's landmasses for thousands of year. The idea of wilderness, meaning a place where humans don't influence nature, is recent and probably partly stems from the depopulation of western North America from European diseases before Europeans began exploring the region. See the Louis and Clark expedition.
- rch 7y agoI don't believe the article adequately addresses intensive industrial uses, e.g. oil and gas leases[1], which are potentially permitted on other categories of federally managed lands. It's also fairly disingenuous to claim that human activity is not allowed in wilderness areas: I'll be camping in a gorgeous wilderness area in Colorado this weekend. [1] https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/oil-and-gas/oil-and-gas-statistics https://www.blm.gov/programs/energy-and-minerals/oil-and-gas...