| National Wilderness Preservation System |
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Information AboutNational Wilderness Preservation System |
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| protected areas of the united states | |
| wilderness area | |
| wilderness areas of the united states | |
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]] On Federal lands in the United States , Congress may designate an area as wilderness under the provisions of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Wilderness areas are subject to specific management restrictions. Human activities are restricted to non-motorized recreation (such as Backpacking , hunting, fishing, horseback riding, etc.), scientific research, and other non-invasive activities. In general, the law prohibits logging, mining, roads, mechanized vehicles (including bicycles), and other forms of development. The Wilderness Act is the legal basis for the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS). Wilderness areas fall in to IUCN Protected Area management category Ia (Strict Nature Preserves) or Ib (Wilderness areas). The National Wilderness Preservation System coordinates the wilderness activities of the four federal agencies — Bureau Of Land Management , U.S. Forest Service , National Park Service and the U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service . Wilderness areas are parts of national parks, wildlife refuges, national forests, and the public domain and may include land in several different units managed by different agencies. Initially, the NWPS included 34 areas protecting 9.1 million acres (37,000 km&2) in the national forests. As of January 2006, there were 680 wilderness areas in the NWPS, preserving 105 million acres (430,000 km&2). This is approximately 5% of the entire United States, though only about 2.5% of the 48 contiguous states. Wilderness areas exist in 44 of the 50 states. Some state and tribal governments also designate wilderness areas under their own authority and local laws. These are not federal areas and the exact nature of protection may differ from federal laws. Most U.S. wilderness areas are in National Forests but the largest amount of wilderness land is administered by the National Park Service. The largest contiguous wilderness complex in the United States is the Noatak and Gates Of The Arctic Wilderness es in Alaska at 12,743,329 acres (51,570 km&2); the largest wilderness area outside Alaska is the Death Valley Wilderness in southeastern California. A special exemption to the "no mechanized equipment" rule is made for wilderness areas in Alaska: limited use of motorized vehicles and construction of cabins and aquaculture are permitted {Link without Title} . These exemptions were allowed due to the large amount of wilderness in Alaska and the concerns of subsistence users, including Alaska Natives . The newest wilderness area is the Cedar Mountain Wilderness in Utah , designated in January 2006. SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
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