For Wilderness to Remain Wild, It Must Remain Unmanipulated

Mount Thielsen Wilderness, southern Oregon Cascades. Photo: Jeffrey St. Clair.

Clare Boerigter’s recent piece in The Conversation on manipulating designated Wilderness areas showed a profound misunderstanding about Wilderness, its history, its stewardship policies, and the Wilderness Act itself. Her proposed solution would result in the loss of the very quality for which Congress designated Wildernesses: their wildness.

Boerigter, a U.S. Forest Service fire researcher, suggests that...