ADDITIONAL INFORMATION-Continued Newspaper Formerly Opposing Wilderness Bill Voices Support for Revised Page Organizations supporting the Wilderness bill Our American Wilderness (Science News Letter for February 8, 1958). 143 Oil Versus Wildlife-Kenai Is the Test (article from Conservation News, December 1, 1957). 120 133 144 Our Wilderness System (article by Howard Zahniser) - Park and monument units of the national park system possibly qualifying for inclusion in the wilderness system under S. 4028_. Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes (No. 991). Cook County (Minn.) Board of County Commissioners.. Lake County (Minn.) Board of Commissioners_ National Council of State Garden Clubs.. Port Angeles (Wash.) Chamber of Commerce_ St. Louis County, Minn., Board of Commissioners. Washington State Association of Soil Conservation District_ Safeguarding the Wilderness (article by John B. Oakes in the New York 71 100 Saving the Wild (editorial from the Washington Post, February 2, 1958) 133 22 Westerners Should Study Wilderness Plan (editorial from the Salt Lake 138 Wilderness Bill (article from the New York Times on July 20, 1958). 142 140 Wilderness-type areas as of June 1, 1958 (table). 54 NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION ACT WEDNESDAY, JULY 23, 1958 UNITED STATES SENATE, COMMITTEE ON INTERIOR AND INSULAR AFFAIRS, Washington, D. C. The committee met, pursuant to call, at 10 a. m., in room 224, Senate Office Building, Hon. James E. Murray (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senators Murray, Bible, Neuberger, Watkins, Kuchel, and Barrett. Also present: Benton J. Stong, professional staff member; Claude E. Wood, administrative assistant to Senator Anderson; and James H. Gamble, professional staff member. The CHAIRMAN. The hearing will please come to order. This morning, the committee is to consider S. 4028, to establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people and for other purposes. A copy of the bill will be placed in the record at this point. (S. 4028 is as follows:) [S. 4028, 85th Cong., 2d sess.] A BILL To establish a National Wilderness Preservation System for the permanent good of the whole people, and for other purposes Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a), in order to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness, there is hereby established a National Wilderness Preservation System. As hereinafter provided, this System shall be composed of federally owned or controlled areas in the United States and its Territories and possessions, retaining their primeval environment and influence and being managed for purposes consistent with their continued preservation as wilderness, which areas shall serve the public purposes of recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical use and enjoyment by the people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness. (b) The Congress recognizes that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, is destined to occupy and modify all areas within the United States, its Territories, and possessions except those that are designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition. The preservation of such designated areas of wilderness is recognized as a desirable policy of the Government of the United States of America for the health, welfare, knowledge, and happiness of its citizens of present and future generations, particularly for those uses of such areas that facilitate recreation and the preservation or restoration of health. (c) It is accordingly declared to be the policy of Congress (1) to secure the dedication of an adequate system of areas of wilderness to serve the recreational, scenic, scientific, educational, conservation, and historical needs of the people, and (2) to provide for the protection of these areas and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness. Pursuant to this policy the Congress gives sanction to the continued preservation as wilderness of those areas federally owned or controlled that are within na1 tional parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, or other public lands, and that have so far retained under their Federal administration the principal attributes of their primeval character. It is pursuant to this policy and sanction that the National Wilderness Preservation System is established. Within the units of this System designated for inclusion by this Act, and in those that may later be designated in accordance with its provisions, the preservation of wilderness shall be paramount. (d) In establishing thus a National Wilderness Preservation System to inIclude units within the national forests, it is further declared to be the policy of Congress to administer the national forests with the general objectives of multiple use and sustained yield, and in order to carry out this policy the Secretary of Agriculture is accordingly directed to administer the national forests on a multiple use basis so that the resources thereof will be used and developed to produce a sustained yield of products and services, including the establishment and maintenance of wilderness areas, for the benefit of all the people of this and future generations. The purposes of this Act are further declared to be within and supplemental to but not in interference with the purposes for which national forests are established as set forth in the Act of June 4, 1897 (30 Stat. 34, 35; U. S. C. 475, 551). (e) 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. For the purposes of this Act, the term "wilderness" shall include the areas provided for in section 2 of this Act and such other areas as shall be designated for inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System in accordance with the provisions of this Act. NATIONAL WILDERNESS PRESERVATION SYSTEM SEC. 2. The National Wilderness Preservation System (hereafter referred to in this Act as the Wilderness System) shall comprise (subject to existing private rights, if any) the federally owned or controlled areas of land and water provided for in this section and the related airspace reservations. NATIONAL FOREST AREAS (a) The Wilderness System shall include the areas within the national forests classified on June 1, 1958, by the Department of Agriculture or the Forest Service as wilderness, wild, primitive, or roadless: Provided, That the Wilderness System shall not include any primitive area which the Secretary of Agriculture shall determine to be not predominantly of wilderness value, and each primitive area included in the Wilderness System shall be subject to such boundary modification as the Secretary shall determine to be needed to exclude any portions not predominantly of wilderness value or to add any adjacent national forest lands predominantly of wilderness value. Determinations regarding national forest areas classified as primitive shall be made within ten years after the date of this Act, and any such area regarding which such determinations have not been made shall, with the exception of any roads, motor trails, structures, or other installations then existing, automatically then become a part of the Wilderness System. Additional areas for inclusion in the Wilderness System may be designated within national forests by the Secretary of Agriculture, after not less than ninety days public notice and the holding of a public hearing, if there is a demand for such a hearing, and such designations shall take effect as provided in subsection (f) below. The publication of a notice of a proposal to add any national forest area or part thereof to the Wilderness System shall segregate the public lands involved from any or all appropriations under the public-land laws to the extent deemed necessary by the Secretary of Agriculture. NATIONAL PARK SYSTEM AREAS (b) At the times and in the manner hereinafter provided for, the Wilderness System shall include each park and monument in the National Park System on June 1, 1958, embracing a continuous area of five thousand acres or more without roads, and such additional units of the National Park System as the Secretary of the Interior shall designate. Not later than ten years after the date of this Act, or within two years after the unit has been added to the Wilderness System, whichever is later, and ninety days after giving public notice in accordance with section 4 of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 238; 5 U. S. C. 1003) the Secretary of the Interior shall designate within each unit of the National Park System included in the Wilderness System such area or areas as he shall determine to be required for roads, motor trails, buildings, accommodations for visitors, and administrative installations. Each such unit shall become a part of the Wilderness System when the designation of such area or areas has been made. Should the Secretary fail to make such a designation within the time limits specified, each such unit, with the exception of roads, motor trails, buildings, accommodations for visitors, and administrative installations then in existence, shall automatically then become a part of the Wilderness System. No designation of an area for roads, motor trails, buildings, accommodations for visitors, or administrative installations shall modify or affect the application to that area of the provisions of the Act approved August 25, 1916, entitled "An Act to establish a National Park Service, and for other purposes" (39 Stat. 535, as amended; 16 U. S. C. 1 and the following). The accommodations and installations in such designated areas shall be incident to the conservation and use and enjoyment of the scenery and the natural and historical objects and flora and fauna of the park or monument in its natural condition. Further, the inclusion of any National Park System area within the Wilderness System pursuant to this Act shall in no manner lower the standards evolved for the use and preservation of such National Park System areas in accordance with the Act of August 25, 1916 (39 Stat. 535, as amended; 16 U. S. C., 1952 edition, sec. 1 and the following), the statutory authority under which the area was created, or any other Act of Congress which might pertain to or affect such National Park System area. NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGES AND RANGES (c) The Wilderness System shall include such wildlife refuges and game ranges, or portions thereof, as the Secretary of the Interior shall designate. Within five years after the date of this Act the Secretary shall survey the refuges and ranges under his jurisdiction on June 1, 1958, and designate for inclusion in the Wilderness System those refuges and ranges, or portions thereof, that he determines to be appropriate. Further, the Secretary shall survey any refuges or ranges added to his jurisdiction after June 1, 1958, to determine if they are, or contain areas that are, suitable for inclusion in the Wilderness System, and shall make such determination and so designate the appropriate refuge, range, or portion thereof, within two years after the refuge or range is added to his jurisdiction. Within two years after the designation of any refuge or range in its entirety, and ninety days after giving public notice in accordance with section 4, Administrative Procedure Act of 1946 (60 Stat. 238; 5 U. S. C. 1003), the Secretary of the Interior shall designate within such refuge or range such area or areas as he shall determine to be required for roads and buildings and other installations for administration and protection of the wildlife. Should the Secretary fail to make such designation within the time limit specified, the refuge or range, with the exception of any road, building, or other installation for administration and protection then existing, shall automatically then become a part of the Wilderness System. THE INDIANS' WILDERNESS (d) The Wilderness System shall include such areas of tribal land on Indian reservations as the Secretary of the Interior may designate as appropriate for inclusion after consultation with the several tribes or bands, through their tribal councils or other duly constituted authorities. Such designation shall not change title to the land or the tribe's beneficial interest in the land. The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to make any addition, modification, or elimination recommended by any tribe or band with regard to any area of its tribal land. Unless the Congress shall otherwise provide, the termination of Federal trusteeship over a tribe or tribes shall remove from the Wilderness System any included tribal lands so affected. Nothing in this Act shall in any respect abrogate any treaty with any band or tribe of Indians, or in any way modify or otherwise affect the Indians' hunting and fishing rights or privileges. |