What was the basis of the Wilderness idea?
The wilderness idea — protection of the Nation’s most pristine undeveloped lands — was born in the United States. Early supporters of a wilderness system saw a fundamental need to sustain the unique American character shaped by our national encounter with the wild frontier. In 1925, conservationist Aldo Leopold first promoted a “definite national policy advocating a system of wilderness involving the National Parks and National Forests.” In a memo to Secretary Ickes in 1934, Bob Marshall, another 20th-century Wilderness advocate, suggested the need for protecting wilderness areas by law. After World War II, rapid development threatened the integrity of the remaining undeveloped tracts of public land. Based on early experiences in wilderness protection, conservationists looked for stronger ways to permanently protect wilderness and drafted the first wilderness bill in 1945.
