Established by Congress, wilderness areas are permanently
preserved by law in their natural condition, with multiple benefits
for clean water, backcountry recreation, high-quality fisheries, scenery,
and old-growth habitat. They are protected from logging, road construction,
and mining. Recreation in wilderness includes hiking, nature study,
horseback riding, camping, canoeing, fishing, and hunting. Under bills
passed in 1975, 1984, and 1988, approximately 58,000 acres, or 7 percent,
of the Jefferson National Forest is wilderness.
We must recognize that all of our land is destined
to be put to some human use. If any of it is to be preserved in its
natural condition, it must be as the deliberate setting aside of it
for our human use of it in a natural condition.