For decades wilderness areas have provided access and protection to millions of acres of land. Today, climate change is shifting how we think about the importance and management of these places.
Megan Hall: Welcome to Possibly, where we take on huge problems like the future of our planet and break them down into small questions with unexpected answers. I’m Megan Hall.
In an earlier episode, we asked what exactly we mean when we say ‘wilderness’? Today we’ll be talking about wilderness areas in the United States. Why do they exist? And what do they accomplish?
Megan Hall: We had Will Malloy from our Possibly team help Charlie Adams look into this question.
Will Malloy: Hello!
Charlie Adams: Howdy Megan!
Megan Hall: So remind me what we mean when we say wilderness?
Charlie Adams: To recap from last episode, wilderness in the United States has been a tool and term for protecting massive amounts of land from human development like cities, roads, and industry.
Will Malloy: But it’s more complicated because Indigenous people already lived in these places. The wilderness areas became wild by removing people from their homes.
Megan Hall: Got it, and if I remember correctly, the Wilderness Act had something to do with creating these areas, right?
Charlie Adams: Bingo. Here’s Peter Mali, the National Wilderness Program Manager at the US Forest Service to explain more:
Peter Mali: So the Wilderness Act of 1964, defined what wilderness is. It also designated, automatically, over 9 million acres of Forest Service land that were being classified as primitive or wild.
Will Malloy: Those 9 million acres were called wilderness areas, and the Act defined them as:
Peter Mali: “…an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.”
Megan Hall: I’ve heard of these places before…but aren’t they all out West?
Charlie Adams: The first were mostly in the West but today there are over 100 million acres spread out across 44 states and Puerto Rico.
Will Malloy:And there are more wilderness areas each year. In 2023 alone three new ones were created!
Megan Hall: So, what’s behind the drive for more wilderness?
Charlie Adams: It depends on who you ask. For recreationists it might be fishing, hunting, or just the solitude. Here’s Cliff Kipp, the Executive Director of the Bob Marshall Wilderness Foundation in Montana to set the scene:
Cliff Kipp: “you’re gonna hear the wind coming through the trees, you’re going to hear water moving across the landscape…you’ll hear your footsteps on on the ground.”
Will Malloy: For Indigenous peoples these wilderness areas are often located on important ancestral lands and are valued for ceremonial purposes and access to food and game.
Charlie Adams: But even if you never visit a wilderness area, you’re likely to benefit from it.
Megan Hall: In what way?
Will Malloy: Wilderness areas often protect large forests and watersheds that support clean air and water for people living downstream and downwind.
Charlie Adams: These forests and wetlands also suck up a lot of carbon dioxide which makes them a key defense against climate change.
Megan Hall: Are there any other ways they help fight climate change?
Will Malloy: Yes! These large, undeveloped spaces also offer homes for threatened plants and animals, who are already vulnerable because of changing temperatures.
Charlie Adams: Wilderness areas also connect areas of nature together, making it easier for animals to travel or move north for cooler temperatures.
Megan Hall: Sounds like a good deal. But won’t climate change affect wilderness areas too? I’ve seen a lot in the news about forest fires.
Will Malloy: That’s right. Just because they help fight climate change doesn’t mean they’re safe from it.
Charlie Adams: Wilderness areas in the West especially have had to deal with drier and hotter conditions making droughts and wildfires more frequent and more intense.
Will Malloy: And not all plants and animals can just pack up and move for better climates. Climate change is happening too fast.
Megan Hall: So, how are Wilderness Areas managing the impacts of climate change?
Charlie Adams: There’s a big debate on that right now. Some argue for a more hands-on approach like actively fighting the bigger and fiercer wildfires.
Will Malloy: Others say the whole point of wilderness is that it’s free from human intervention so we should just be more hands-off.
Charlie Adams: How we define wilderness and its purpose affects how to go about taking care of it.
Will Malloy: After all, these places aren’t just important for the carbon they suck up– they also matter to the people whose culture, traditions, and economic well-being depend on them.
Charlie Adams: No matter how we choose to respond to climate change, wilderness areas will be an important part of the solution, but they’re also not immune from it.
Megan Hall: Got it. Thanks Charlie and Will.
That’s it for today. For more information, or to ask a question about the way your choices affect our planet, go to askpossibly.org Or subscribe to us wherever you get your podcasts.
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Possibly is a co-production of The Public’s Radio, Brown University’s Institute for Environment and Society, and Brown’s Climate Solutions Initiative
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