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U.S. Code as of:
01/19/04
Section 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.
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