Wilderness Areas

BACKGROUND:  In 1964, the U.S. Congress enacted the Wilderness Act and established the National Wilderness Preservation System.  The Wilderness Act defines wilderness 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, and which:

• generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable;
• has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation;
• 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;
• may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, education, scenic, or historical value.
• The Wilderness Act and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 contain very specific provisions relating to the exploration for and development of mineral resources within Wilderness Areas.  These provisions include recognition of the right to develop mineral resources under valid existing rights including the right of access to private lands, authority for the purchase of private lands or exchange for federal lands of similar value, and a requirement that the U.S. government continue to
  survey Wilderness Areas to determine the mineral values present in those areas.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 designated 9.1 million acres as Wilderness Areas.  By 2002, the National Wilderness Preservation System had grown to more than 105 million acres.  Various federal agencies have recommended another 18 million acres for wilderness designation.  In Idaho, more than four million acres are designated as wilderness areas.  Another nine million acres in Idaho are designated as Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) subject to the same management restrictions as those imposed in Wilderness Areas.

POLICY:  The Idaho Mining Association supports:

• continued access to public lands for exploration and development of mineral resources; and
• the timely and balanced resolution of Idaho’s wilderness issue.

If legislation is enacted to add lands to the National Wilderness Preservation System, that legislation should:

• be consistent with the goals and provisions of the Wilderness Act of 1964 and the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976;
• guarantee valid existing rights, including the right of motorized, vehicular access to mining claims and the right to develop and mine those claims;
• provide for the acquisition of non-federal inholdings through exchange, purchase or donation;
• assure water rights are subject to the primacy and jurisdiction of state law;
• require the continued assessment of mineral values; and
• provide for the multiple-use, including mineral exploration, development and production, of lands not designated as wilderness.