Orphaned Park Wilderness: Ten Steps to Rescue Orphaned Wilderness

STEP 1. Compose Legal Descriptions and Maps of Wilderness Boundaries.
STEP 2. Re-Designate “Potential Wilderness” as Full Wilderness.
STEP 3. Review All Roadless Areas for Wilderness Suitability and Make Appropriate Recommendations to Congress.
STEP 4. Determine Whether Designated Wilderness Should Be Augmented.
STEP 5. Revisit Wilderness Suitability Studies and Congressional Augmentations.
STEP 6. Review Determinations of Parks with “No Suitable Acres.”
STEP 7. Revive Wilderness Recommendations Submitted to Congress but Not Enacted.
STEP 8. Resuscitate Wilderness Recommendations NOT Submitted to Congress: Review Roadless Areas and Submit to Congress.
STEP 9. Recommend Wilderness in Alaska.
STEP 10. Revise the NPS Wilderness Summary to Accurately Reflect Acreage.

STEP 1. Compose Legal Descriptions and Maps of Wilderness Boundaries.
Nearly every statute designating wilderness in an area of the national park system requires that the NPS prepare a written legal description of the wilderness boundary accompanied by an official map. Some parks have not yet met this legal requirement. Director’s Order No. 41 of August 2, 1999 directs all parks with wilderness to meet this goal within 18 months, i.e. by February 2, 2001.

The following parks have prepared neither a legal description nor an official map of their wilderness boundaries: [Note: The date in parentheses is the date wilderness was designated.]

  • Hawaii Volcanoes National Park (1978)
  • Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (1978)
  • Death Valley National Park (1994)
  • Mojave National Preserve (1994)
  • Lake Mead National Recreation Area (2002)

The following parks lack either the legal description, or the map:

  • Congaree Swamp National Monument (1988)
  • Haleakala National Park (1976)
  • Lassen Volcanic National Park (1972)
  • Mount Rainier National Park (1988)
  • North Cascades National Park (1988)
  • Shenandoah National Park (1976)
  • Apostle Islands National Lakeshore (2004) (law requires legal description only)

There are two parks that need to rewrite the legal descriptions and redraw the maps of their designated wilderness. The parks are Craters of the Moon and Petrified Forest.

  • Craters of the Moon - In October 1970 Congress designated wilderness in the national monument. Congress cited map #131-91,000 of March 1970 when creating the Craters of the Moon wilderness. That NPS map, like all early NPS proposals, created an administrative management exclusion zone between the park boundary and the wilderness boundary. Although the NPS abandoned this approach in 1973, the Craters of the Moon wilderness was enacted before that change. In Craters of the Moon, where the borders of the park and the wilderness were parallel, the buffer zone was 5 chains in some places and 13 chains in others (i.e. 330’ or 858’). The NPS filed the above-cited map and a December 1970 legal description with Congress. Once filed, that legal description has the force of law. Only one other NPS wilderness (Petrified Forest) has this characteristic. In hearings on May 5, 1972, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Nathaniel Reed committed to Senator Frank Church of Idaho to redescribe the wilderness boundaries to eliminate the management buffer zone. Thirty-four years later, the NPS has yet to do so.
  • Petrified Forest - On October 23, 1970 Congress designated wilderness in the park, which became the first NPS wilderness along with Craters of the Moon. Congress enacted the NPS’ recommendation for Petrified Forest as depicted on NPS map #NP-PF-3320-C, dated November 1967. (The statute designating wilderness describes the map as #NP-PF-3320-O; the letter “O” appears to be a typographical error). That NPS proposal, like all early NPS proposals, created an administrative management exclusion zone between the park boundary and the wilderness boundary. The NPS abandoned this approach in 1973. In Petrified Forest, where the borders of the park and the wilderness were parallel, the zone was 1/8th of a mile wide (660 feet or ten chains). The NPS referenced map #NP-PF3320-O as the legal wilderness boundary map. The NPS prepared a legal description dated December 1970 that describes such a boundary. The date that the NPS filed the map and description with Congress is undetermined. Once filed, that legal description has the force of law. Only one other NPS wilderness (Craters of the Moon) has this characteristic. In hearings on May 5, 1972, Assistant Secretary of the Interior Nathaniel Reed committed to re-describe the wilderness boundaries to eliminate the management buffer zone, but NPS has yet to take this step.

STEP 2. Re-Designate “Potential Wilderness” as Full Wilderness. Congress has designated over 200,000 acres of lands in 22 parks as “potential wilderness.” Six of those parks have acted over the last quarter century to re-designate 31,172 acres of potential wilderness as wilderness. Over 170,000 acres of potential wilderness remain. Director’s Order No. 41 requires that every park with potential wilderness must inventory such lands within two years (i.e. by August 2, 2001) and publish re-designation notices where appropriate.

Potential wilderness is not to be confused with recommended or “possible” wilderness. Rather, potential wilderness is land that Congress has specifically designated as qualifying for wilderness as soon as certain uses prohibited by the Wilderness Act have ceased. Upon such cessation, Congress authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to re-designate such lands as full wilderness by publication of a notice in the Federal Register.

Until recently, the NPS was unique among wilderness-managing agencies in possessing designated “potential wilderness.” The Wilderness Act of 1964 never uses the term. The origins of “potential wilderness” lie in early NPS efforts to craft wilderness recommendations for Congress. NPS wilderness proposals grappled with issues of non-Federal lands, or Federal lands with grazing and similar uses, within the boundaries of the agency’s wilderness proposal. At first, the NPS applied the term “wilderness reserve” to such lands, presuming that Congress could place the lands in a halfway house on the way to wilderness. Finally, the NPS settled on the term “potential wilderness.” The term began to appear in NPS wilderness recommendations to Congress with Colorado National Monument in early 1972. Congress accepted the term and adopted it for the first time when enacting wilderness laws for several parks on October 20, 1976.

Potential wilderness appears to be an unnecessary designation. In national forests, Bureau of Land Management public lands and in some parks (such as Mojave National Preserve and Joshua Tree additions of 1994) Congress designated areas as wilderness even though they contained non-federal lands. The nonfederal lands within a wilderness boundary are not wilderness by definition of the Wilderness Act. When such lands become Federal the lands immediately become wilderness without any further action.

Parks that published Federal Register notices to re-designate potential wilderness as wilderness (acres shown in parentheses):

  • Buffalo River (24,464 acres)
  • Fire Island (17 acres)
  • Gulf Islands (two separate notices) (2,290 acres)
  • Haleakala (5,449 acres)
  • Joshua Tree (3,502 acres)
  • Point Reyes (1,752 acres)
  • Shenandoah (560 acres)

The 21 parks with remaining designated potential wilderness are:

  • Buffalo River (1,007 acres)
  • Carlsbad Caverns (320 acres)
  • Chiricahua (2 acres)
  • Congaree Swamp (6,840 acres)
  • Cumberland Island (10,500 acres)
  • Death Valley (6,840 acres)
  • Everglades (81,900)
  • Fire Island (1 acre)
  • Great Sand Dunes (2,502 acres)
  • Gulf Islands (520 acres)
  • Haleakala (51acres)
  • Hawaii Volcanoes (7,850 acres)
  • Isle Royale (231 acres)
  • Joshua Tree (27,238 acres)
  • North Cascades (5,226 acres)
  • Olympic (378 acres)
  • Organ Pipe Cactus (1,240 acres)
  • Pinnacles (1,005 acres)
  • Point Reyes (6,778 acres)
  • Sequoia-Kings Canyon (100 acres)
  • Yosemite (3,550 acres)

In many of the above parks the potential wilderness has become Federal lands and/or all prohibited uses have ceased. These lands need to be re-designated.

STEP 3. Review All Roadless Areas for Wilderness Suitability and Make Appropriate Recommendation to Congress. Section 3(c) of the Wilderness Act (16 U.S.C. 1132(c)) required the Secretary of the Interior to study all roadless areas in the national park system on the date the Wilderness Act became law on September 3, 1964 for wilderness suitability.

The NPS has yet to conduct full or even preliminary studies for at least 3 parks in existence on September 3, 1964:

  • Acadia
  • Cape Cod
  • Ozark Riverways

For Cape Cod National Seashore, the process has begun. On January 10, 2005, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ordered the NPS to prepare a wilderness suitability assessment for Cape Cod. The NPS prepared a suitability assessment for Cape Cod on January 6, 2006. The assessment found that the areas zoned as “Natural” in the parks current General Management Plan were suitable for further study. In a letter of December 8, 2005 to the NPS Director, the Regional Director committed to study these areas for a wilderness recommendation. The study has not yet begun.

For all three parks, the NPS must ultimately make a recommendation to Congress, even if the recommendation is that no acres are suitable for wilderness.

Congress has created many parks since 1964 and some of the laws creating the parks required the Secretary to review the lands for wilderness. Reference Manual 41 (page 11) and Director’s Order No. 41 require that the NPS conduct suitability studies of roadless areas within all parks, not just those in existence on September 3, 1964.

The NPS has not conducted suitability studies for at least the following 20 parks created after 1964. Some of the parks possess significant roadless areas while others may be too small for any viable wilderness.

  • Amistad
  • Big South Fork
  • Channel Islands*
  • Chattahoochee River
  • Curecanti
  • Cuyahoga Valley
  • Delaware Water Gap
  • Dry Tortugas
  • Florissant Fossil Beds
  • Fossil Butte
  • Golden Gate
  • Great Basin
  • John D. Rockefeller
  • John Day Fossil Beds
  • Little River Canyon
  • New River Gorge
  • Santa Monica Mountains
  • St. Croix Riverway
  • Timucuan
  • Whiskeytown

* Channel Islands National Park is a good example. In 1980 Congress mandated that the Secretary review and report to the President a wilderness recommendation for Channel Islands (16 U.S.C. 410ff-5). The recommendation was due by October 1, 1983. The NPS never conducted the study and never developed a proposal or recommendation. However, on April 24, 2002, the NPS Regional Director sent a wilderness suitability assessment memo to the NPS Director. Director Mainella failed to act on the memo.

STEP 4. Determine Whether Designated Wilderness Should Be Augmented. Through the planning process, primarily development of park General Management Plans, the NPS has or may be undertaking a further review of wilderness in a number of parks that contain designated wilderness. Since the date of wilderness designation, Congress has added new lands to many parks. The NPS needs to review the major new additions. Further, the NPS has or may determine that portions of the original park should be wilderness. The plans for the following parks are in various states of development, from initial scoping to completion:

  • Everglades - Congress added 108,000 acres in 1989 (the “East Everglades Addition”). The NPS announced that a general management plan revision will analyze wilderness suitability of the East Everglades Addition.
  • Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve – Congress added 45,000 acres of Federal and nonfederal lands in 2000. Some of the former Bureau of Land Management lands (1,284 acres) are wilderness study areas under FLPMA. These and other added areas are under review for a wilderness proposal to the Secretary.
  • Guadalupe Mountains – Congress added over 10,000 acres on the west boundary of the park in 1988. In 2002, the NPS Regional Director prepared a wilderness suitability memo for the 1988 additions that also reviewed non-wilderness lands in the original park. The suitability memo, finding 35,000 suitable acres, was approved by the NPS Director on April 1, 2003. However, the review process then died, apparently in the office of the Assistant Secretary of the Interior. The Secretary has not sent a recommendation to the President.
  • Joshua Tree - In the General Management Plan for the park, adopted in January 2000, the park committed to study for wilderness 28,000 acres in the Cottonwood Mountains (lands added in 1994 but that were not designated as wilderness). The GMP also proposed that Congress re-designate 9,060 acres in the old monument as wilderness for the purpose of establishing more manageable boundaries. The NPS has not yet acted to prepare the study and subject it to public hearing for purposes of developing a wilderness proposal.
  • Kings Canyon – In 1984, Congress added the 1,500 acre Jennie Lakes to Kings Canyon National Park and directed the Secretary to study the addition for wilderness suitability by September 1987. No study was conducted. On January 10, 2005, U.S. District Court for District of Columbia ordered the NPS to prepare a wilderness suitability assessment for the Jennie Lakes Addition. The NPS prepared a suitability assessment for Jennie Lakes on January 6, 2006. The assessment found that the addition was suitable for further study.
  • Lassen Volcanic - In 2002, the NPS adopted a new general management plan for the park, calling for consideration of wilderness expansion by 25,000 acres. Nothing has been done to implement the GMP decision since then.
  • Mesa Verde – Congress designated approximately 8,100 acres as wilderness in 1976. However, the Senate Report for the act (S.R. No. 94-1357 of September 29, 1976) states “The Committee adopted the acreage figure recommended by the National Park Service, although it recognizes that substantial additional acreage within the park qualifies as wilderness. The Committee expects that at some future time the National Park Service will make further recommendations for wilderness designation.” The House Report (H.R. 94-1417 of August 13, 1976) expressed similar expectations. No further recommendation was ever forthcoming.
  • Petrified Forest - In 2004 Congress added significant new lands to Petrified Forest National Park of 125,000 acres. In a letter to PEER of June 30, 2005, the park superintendent pledged to undertake a wilderness review of the expansion area in three to five years.
  • Saguaro – In 1991 Congress added 3,540 acres of the Rincon Valley to the south side of the Rincon Mountain Unit (east of Tucson, Arizona). The NPS has not studied the added lands (which adjoin existing wilderness) for wilderness suitability. The NPS wrote in a letter to PEER of October 3, 2005 that they have completed a wilderness suitability review for the added lands and found some to be suitable for further study.
  • Sequoia – Congress added the 16,200-acre Mineral King Valley to Sequoia on November 10, 1978. Congress required a comprehensive management plan of the added lands within two years. That plan recommended that all lands above a certain elevation contour be made wilderness. However, the NPS never conducted public hearings on a wilderness proposal and a recommendation was never developed or forwarded to the Director and the Secretary. On January 10, 2005, U.S. District Court for District of Columbia ordered the NPS to prepare a wilderness suitability assessment for the Mineral King (and the 2000 Dillonwood) Additions to Sequoia National Park. The NPS prepared a suitability assessment for the Mineral King Addition on January 6, 2006. The assessment found that the areas defined as “backcountry” were suitable for further study. The backcountry area consists of approximately 95% of the currently calculated 15,107-acre Addition. The NPS determined that none of the 2000 Dillonwood Addition was suitable.

STEP 5. Revisit Wilderness Suitability Studies and Congressional Augmentations.

  • Big Bend - Congress added over 100,000 acres to Big Bend in 1980 and 1987. These lands were not subject to the original wilderness study or the 1978 NPS recommendation to Congress (upon which Congress has yet to act).
  • Big Cypress - The NPS 1979 study concluded that zero acres were suitable for wilderness. The study committed the NPS to restudy the park in five years. But the NPS never did do. Nor did the NPS transmit its recommendation of zero suitable acres to Congress. Congress added 146,000 acres in 1988 with a mandated wilderness review of the Addition due by 1993. The NPS refused to do the study. On January 17, 2006, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the 1988 requirement for a wilderness study remains a binding legal obligation upon the NPS (though one not enforceable by the plaintiff in that case, The Wilderness Society). In June 2006, the NPS finally agreed to review the Big Cypress Addition for wilderness as part of the general management planning process for that area.
  • Big Thicket - NPS 1980 wilderness study concluded zero suitable acres but described a “wilderness objective area” of 60,000 acres. The NPS never transmitted its recommendation to Congress. Congress added 11,000 acres in 1992.
  • Chaco Culture - The first NPS wilderness recommendation to Congress (March 1968) found zero suitable acres at Chaco. However, in 1980 Congress added significant new roadless lands to that park.
  • Crater Lake - NPS transmitted a recommendation for Crater Lake wilderness to Congress in May 1978. In 1980 Congress added nearly 23,000 acres to the park, most of which is roadless. White Sands – In 1972, the NPS recommended zero suitable acres in a 143,000-acre park because of missile overflights and possible falling debris from the adjacent White Sands Missile Range. At least 130,000 acres of this park are “roadless.” The Director pledged at the time to conduct a restudy of the area; a study that has never been done.
  • Wupatki – In 1972, NPS recommended zero acres suitable for wilderness in the 35,000-acre park, largely due to grazing. The grazing permit to the Babbitt’s CO Bar Ranch expired in 1988 and is now gone. Moreover, grazing of livestock per se does not disqualify lands from wilderness.

STEP 6. Review Determinations of Parks with “No Suitable Acres.” Besides the five parks in the previous category where the NPS determined that zero acres were suitable for wilderness (Big Cypress original, Big Thicket, Chaco Canyon, White Sands and Wupatki) there are four others. The NPS needs to review the suitability conclusions in these four parks:

  • Biscayne - NPS wilderness study of July 1983 found zero acres suitable as wilderness. Reasons given were the impacts of external activities including the Turkey Point Power Plant, overhead jets based at Homestead Air Force Base and oceangoing vessels. However, there are several undeveloped islands in the park that are roadless. The determination was never submitted to Congress.
  • Canaveral - NPS wilderness study of September 1981 found zero suitable acres. The determination was never submitted to Congress.
  • Mammoth Cave - NPS wilderness study found zero suitable acres although the park contains 39,000 acres of roadless lands in four units. The Secretary of the Interior committed to the President to restudy Mammoth Cave and “report back to the Congress at a later date” (letter of August 23, 1974). The President made a similar commitment to Congress in a message dated December 4, 1974. No restudy was done.
  • Padre Island - NPS wilderness study concluded zero acres suitable for wilderness in the 130,000 acre seashore. The President transmitted the zero-acre recommendation to Congress in September 1972. The basis for non-suitability was the presence of subsurface non-federally owned oil and gas rights.
  • Wind Cave – At the time that Congress passed the Wilderness Act, Wind Cave was a small national park of 28,000 acres. Though not technically part of the “no suitable acres” groups, there is no record that the NPS ever conducted a formal study of the park, or that the Secretary ever transmitted to Congress a recommendation that none of the park was suitable as wilderness, as with the nine parks listed above. In the 1994 GMP for Wind Cave, the NPS states as much, though without the benefit of the full review process that the above nine parks underwent. The 1994 GMP states that because of “public and administrative roads that intersect the park, there were no contiguous sections that met all of the criteria for wilderness designation. In 2005, Congress added 5,675 acres to the park. The NPS should revisit the issue to determine if the addition alters its 1994 conclusion.

STEP 7. Revive Wilderness Recommendations Submitted to Congress but Not Enacted. There are 19 parks for which the Secretary has submitted recommendations to Congress and on which Congress has not acted. The recommendations for these parks were transmitted to Congress between 1971 and 1978 and encompass over five million acres.*

In the interim decades land status and other factors can change. For example, in Arches National Park, the NPS recommended 9,000 acres of potential wilderness because they were State of Utah lands. Those lands are now federal. Thus, the numbers for Arches (and several other parks) may require a technical adjustment and reformulation. Two of the 19 parks are addressed in Step 6 (Big Bend and Crater Lake) and are not listed here.

  • Arches
  • Assateague Island
  • Bryce Canyon
  • Canyonlands
  • Capitol Reef
  • Cedar Breaks
  • Colorado
  • Craters of the Moon
  • Cumberland Gap
  • Dinosaur
  • El Malpais
  • Glacier
  • Grand Teton
  • Great Smoky Mountains
  • Rocky Mountain
  • Yellowstone
  • Zion

This class of parks encompasses over 6,000,000 acres of wilderness or potential wilderness.

* The President transmitted one proposal to Congress in 1991 for the then BLM-administered public lands in Idaho known as the Great Rift Wilderness Study Area. Much of the lands were incorporated into Craters of the Moon National Monument by presidential proclamation in 2000, and re-designated by Act of Congress as Craters of the Moon National Preserve” in 2002.

STEP 8. Resuscitate Wilderness Recommendations NOT Submitted to Congress: Review Roadless Areas and Submit to Congress.
The NPS has prepared wilderness studies and recommendations for 8 other parks outside of Alaska that have never been submitted to either the Secretary, the President or transmitted to Congress. The NPS needs to transmit these as proposals to the Secretary and the Secretary recommend them to Congress. The 8 parks and the acres proposed as wilderness in the latest NPS studies are:

  • Bighorn Canyon (8,108 acres/December 1981)
  • Cape Lookout (2,920 acres and 2 potential acres/August 1985)
  • Glen Canyon (588,055 acres and 48,995 potential acres/August 1980)
  • Grand Canyon (1,109,257 acres and 29,820 potential acres/August 1993)
  • Lake Mead (418,655 acres and 262,125 potential acres/January 1978; Congress designated wilderness in the Nevada portion of the park in 2002, leaving approximately 495,000 acres from the 1978 proposal undesignated in the Arizona portion)
  • Pictured Rocks (11,739 acres/January 2006)
  • Sleeping Bear Dunes (7,128 acres and 23,775 potential acres/January 1981)
  • Voyageurs (127,436 acres and 2,442 potential acres/July 1992)

This class of parks encompasses approximately 2,640,000 acres of wilderness or potential wilderness.

Before transmitting these proposals, the NPS needs to determine if they give adequate protection to roadless areas. Some of the proposals are minimalist in scope and leave out important roadless tracts. Among these, in particular, are Bighorn Canyon, Cape Lookout and Pictured Rocks.

STEP 9. Recommend Wilderness in Alaska.
In the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980 (ANILCA) Congress designated 32.9 million acres of wilderness in the national parks, preserves and monuments in Alaska. The act also required that the Secretary study an addition 21.8 million acres for wilderness designation. In November 1988, the NPS prepared a final environmental impact statement on the studies for the 13 parks involved. The Draft EIS found nearly 17 million acres as qualified for wilderness. However, the Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks directed that the preferred alternative in the DEIS show 7 million acres. In December 1988, the acting Assistant Secretary reduced the preferred alternative acres to 4.7 million.

The failure to act on the remaining wilderness qualified lands in Alaska parks is a glaring deficiency. Because of it, parks like Aniakchak, Bering Land Bridge, Cape Krusenstern, Kenai Fjords and Yukon-Charley have no wilderness at all.

The NPS has never held public hearings on the wilderness recommendations for Alaska. The NPS needs to do so and then formulate a recommendation to submit to the Secretary and the Congress. That recommendation could differ significantly from the preferred alternative in the EIS (4.7 million acres) and could be as large as 16.9 million acres.

The parks involved in Alaska are:
  • Aniakchak
  • Bering Land Bridge
  • Cape Krusenstern
  • Denali
  • Gates of the Arctic
  • Glacier Bay
  • Katmai
  • Kenai Fjords
  • Kobuk Valley
  • Lake Clark
  • Noatak
  • Wrangell-St. Elias
  • Yukon-Charley

STEP 10. Revise the NPS Wilderness Summary to Accurately Acreage.
The following categories should be reviewed to determine the accurate acreage:

Category 1 – Parks with Designated Wilderness (47)
a. designated wilderness
b. designated potential wilderness (21 of the above parks)

Category 2 – Parks with recommended Wilderness (19)
a. recommended wilderness
b. recommended potential wilderness

Category 3 - Parks with Proposed Wilderness (8)
a. proposed wilderness
b. proposed potential wilderness

Category 4 – Alaska Parks with Proposed Wilderness (13)
a. proposed wilderness
b. proposed potential wilderness
(Note: This category includes three parks with designated wilderness, Denali, Glacier Bay and Katmai that also have extant wilderness proposals)