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In the United States, the practice of setting aside selected lands to remain in a primitive, undeveloped condition dates back more than a century. It is recognized that wildlands provide important benefits for people. Yet, how does one measure the joy of exploring an old-growth forest to see how nature works over time? How valuable is the experience of fishing for native brook trout in a pristine river, or camping deep in the woods where the sights, sounds, and smells are only those of the forest?

In 1996, an interagency effort, including leadership by the Forest Service, led to the publication of the Southern Appalachian Assessment (SAA). This multivolume study described the resources of this 37-million-acre region, which includes national forests and parks, and extensive surrounding private lands.

According to the SAA, only 1 percent of the Southern Appalachian region is designated wilderness, consisting of 39 areas totaling about 430,000 acres. Another 2 percent of the land in the region is national forest roadless areas, which are eligible for wilderness designation. These roadless areas comprise about 715,000 acres, affording opportunities to establish wilderness areas in each of the region's national forests.

Increasing Recreation

As detailed in Charting a New Course: National Forests in the Southern Appalachians (Morton, 1994), the demand for recreational opportunities that wildlands offer is increasing in the Southern Appalachians as the population of the area continues to grow. The Forest Service expects 50 percent more dispersed recreation use by the year 2005 in the South, and a doubling of current rates by the year 2040. With adventure-based recreation becoming increasingly popular, there is increased demand for more natural settings that hold greater challenges for outdoor enthusiasts with enhanced skills and experience. The remaining roadless areas in the national forests afford backcountry recreation opportunities that can meet future demand.

Ecological Benchmarks

Among other benefits of wilderness, the SAA notes that "these areas can serve as ecological benchmarks for assessing human-induced impacts in more developed settings. They can be baselines for global monitoring studies and living laboratories to see how natural systems interact and evolve." The SAA lists a wide variety of scientific studies in the region's wildernesses on topics from air pollution effects, to old growth forest dynamics, to visitor satisfaction.

Culture and History

Wildlands also provide cultural enrichment. If we leave some land in a natural condition and secure living space for our native plants and animals, we can more fully understand the kind of landscape experienced by earlier generations of Americans, including American Indians. Accounts of life in America in the 17th and 18th centuries have more meaning if we can see and experience wild forestlands in a condition similar to what they were in colonial times.

Our culture has been shaped by the existence of wilderness to use and explore. Aldo Leopold, a noted conservationist, writer, and founding member of The Wilderness Society, said in his book, A Sand Country Almanac: "Wilderness is the raw material out of which man has hammered the artifact called civilization. Wilderness was never a homogenous raw material. It was very diverse, and the resulting artifacts are very diverse. These differences in the end-product are known as cultures. The rich diversity of the world's cultures reflects a corresponding diversity in the wilds that gave them birth."

Biodiversity

Another important reason for conserving large tracts of unfragmented forest is their contribution to biodiversity. Nineteen federally listed threatened and endangered species are found in 16 roadless areas. Older forest (stands over 100 years old) exists in 125 of the 139 national forest roadless areas, totaling 174,000 acres. The SAA shows that some ecological classification units were not represented by a designated wilderness or even an inventoried roadless area, and it is important that all ecological classification types be represented in roadless areas and wilderness.

Wildlands also serve as prime black bear habitat in the region. In particular, the SAA finds that high densities of black bear are associated with areas of low road density, and, conversely, that areas of low black bear density generally have higher road densities. Wilderness, roadless areas, and other wildlands often provide the habitat security that benefits black bear, as well as the greatest amount of hard mast — food —from mature oak forests.

Neotropical migratory songbirds associated with forest interior habitat also benefit from the large tracts of unfragmented forest found in wilderness and roadless areas. These include species in decline, such as the wood thrush, ovenbird, and cerulean warbler, as well as cavity-nesting birds like the pileated woodpecker.

The SAA also found that 11 percent of the region's trout streams are in remote settings. Roadless areas offer outstanding opportunities for quality fishing in backcountry settings, and contain pristine watersheds and streams.

During the years ahead, while we add to our knowledge of the habitat needs of our native flora and fauna, it makes sense to keep some of our land in an undeveloped condition. This will help ensure that we do not eliminate the sustaining ingredients that are critical to the well-being of some of these species.

Potential Benefits to Human Health

Wild nature yields products used in medicine and other disciplines that affect many aspects of our daily lives. For example, some antibiotics, including penicillin and cephalosporin, are derived from natural substances. Taxol, from the Pacific yew tree, is used in the treatment of ovarian cancer. For years, the yew tree, with little market value, was eliminated routinely from the forests of the Pacific Northwest.

Considering that only a small number of the plants and animals on earth have been studied for their medicinal properties, there undoubtedly are many other secrets yet to be discovered. These secrets of nature may have important and far-reaching benefits for humankind, and these discoveries may be possible only if portions of our natural environment remain intact.

In the book, The Lands Nobody Wanted, by William Shands and Robert Healy, it is recommended that future management of the eastern national forests gives priority to "providing public benefits that cannot be supplied by private land, either because resources are unavailable, or because an economic incentive is absent." Because, as stated in the SAA, large tracts of the region's privately owned land are expected to decrease over time, national forests and other public lands offer the best option for protecting large blocks of wild land in the Southern Appalachians.