[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 15]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21156]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



                             WILDERNESS ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. BRUCE F. VENTO

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, September 8, 1999

  Mr. VENTO. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the 35th 
anniversary of the Wilderness Act. The Wilderness Act plays a critical 
role in establishing common sense values and land use ethic for the 
management and protection of America's most scenic and ecologically 
diverse lands. Wilderness, as defined by the Act, is an area ``where 
man himself is a visitor who does not remain,'' where the land 
``appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with 
the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable.'' After 7 years 
of hearings and debate, and 66 rewrites, President Johnson signed the 
Wilderness Act and formally codified the mantle piece of United States 
environmental legislation into law.
  The Wilderness Act established 9.1 million acres of wilderness in our 
National Forests, and in its 35 year legacy, Congress added an 
additional 95 million acres to the Wilderness Preservation System. 
Although I am here to celebrate and commend Congress for its role in 
protecting our nation's land, the Wilderness Preservation System is far 
from complete and the land is far from being fully protected.
  Threats to the preservation of our wilderness system exist in many 
forms, but they all have the same effect on our wild lands--the 
degradation and ultimate downward spiral of entire ecosystems. These 
threats exist in our national forests where valuable tracts of land are 
sought as much for their beauty as for their timber, in our lands to 
the West where the water that breaths life into diverse ecosystems is 
being diverted away for agricultural purposes, in our deserts where the 
chirp of a cricket is drowned out from the scream of jet engines 
overhead, or where mining threatens to degrade critically important 
lands adjacent to Congressionally mandated wilderness preserves. These 
are all very real and very dangerous threats facing our wilderness 
system--threats that Congress has the power to stop.
  Unfortunately, Congress does not have the will to put an end to these 
threats. In fact, since the 104th Congress, only 20,000 acres of land 
at Opal Creek, Oregon have been added to the Wilderness Preservation 
System. To put this in perspective, the Reagan Administration alone 
added 15 million acres to the wilderness system. In the face of growing 
public sentiment and outcry for more greenspace and wildlands, Congress 
must push forward an agenda that all of America can support--protection 
and expansion of America's Wilderness Preservation System.
  The American public no longer sees land as an opportunity for 
expansion and exploitation. All too often now, people seek nature as a 
release and haven from the rigors and stress of everyday life. We are 
about to embark on a historic journey to a new millennium and a new way 
of thinking. It is time that Congress breath new life into Wilderness 
Preservation System and expand on its already diverse portfolio. 
America is defined as much by its melting pot of people and cultures as 
it is by its diverse landscapes, many of which are unique to this nation alone. 
It is time for Congress to push forward a wilderness agenda and teach 
our children a land use ethic that will protect the land and its 
creatures for generations to come.

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