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About the Bureau of Land Management The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) cares for about 245 million acres of federally owned public lands, mainly in the Western United States and Alaska. These lands, representing about one-eighth of our nation’s land area, belong to all Americans. In addition, the BLM administers 700 million acres of mineral estate across the entire country. Public lands are used for many purposes. They support local economies, providing Americans with coal, oil and gas, forest products, livestock forage, and other commodities. As a haven for plants and wildlife, they play a critical role in habitat and resource conservation efforts. They embrace some of our country’s most important historical, archaeological, and paleontological sites. Open spaces on public lands offer places for people to play, learn, and explore. In recent years, some BLM lands have been designated as part of the National Landscape Conservation System, a network of lands afforded special status and managed almost exclusively to conserve their scientific, cultural, educational, ecological, and other values. The BLM is responsible for managing public lands under the principles of multiple use and sustained yield in a manner that best meets the current and future needs of the public. With so many resources and uses, the BLM’s job is challenging. Thankfully, countless partners, volunteers, and communities provide invaluable support, helping the agency carry out its stewardship mission. To learn more about your public lands and how you can get involved, visit http://www.blm.gov. For the Time Estimate: One to two 45-minute class periods Teacher Common Core Overview Connections In this activity, students examine excerpts from This activity addresses the following Common an article titled “The Need for Wilderness Core English Language Arts Standards: Areas,” which is about the value of preserving • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1 wilderness. Students then compare the article Cite specific textual evidence to support to some of the language in the 1964 Wilderness analysis of primary and secondary sources, Act. The article is by Howard Zahniser, who is connecting insights gained from specific also the act’s main author. details to an understanding of the text as a whole. • CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2 Learning Objectives Determine the central ideas or information Students will be able to (1) explain why the of a primary or secondary source; provide Wilderness Act of 1964 was passed; an accurate summary that makes clear the (2) compare passages from an article relationships among the key details and advocating the act to an excerpt from the act; ideas. and (3) assess arguments about the relationship between wilderness and civilization. This activity also addresses the following enduring understanding: • Wilderness areas provide numerous Teacher benefits to natural ecosystems and to people. C Preparation la s s r Essential Questions: o o 1. Make enough copies of “Wilderness m • Why should the United States protect Classroom Investigation” Handouts 1 In wilderness? v and 2 for each student, and provide e s t chart paper and markers for up to eight • Is legislation the best way to protect ig a small groups. wilderness? tio n S e 2. Read the “Background Information” r ie to become familiar with some of the s , W events leading up to the passage of the I L Wilderness Act. D E R N E S S 1 Background Information The article titled “Howard Zahniser: Author of wilderness bill. The Living Wilderness was the Wilderness Act” (http://www.wilderness. the key journal, and Zahniser was its editor. net/NWPS/zahniser) provides some historical “The Need for Wilderness Areas” was a context for the article by Zahniser that students seminal article that rallied public opinion will analyze for this lesson. Below are some behind a wilderness bill. important highlights from “Howard Zahniser: • By 1964, the bill’s advocates had secured Author of the Wilderness Act.” the support of powerful committee chairmen in Congress, such as Democratic Early Days Senator Hubert H. Humphrey of Minnesota • By the 1920s, supporters of wilderness and Republican Representative John P. preservation began to succeed at having Saylor of Pennsylvania, and both houses some forest areas designated as wilderness. passed the bill that President Lyndon B. An example is the Gila Wilderness in New Johnson signed on September 3, 1964 (the Mexico, designated in 1924. margins were 373-1 in the House and 73-12 in the Senate). • It was fairly easy for federal agencies to designate areas as wilderness, but it was Like most laws, the Wilderness Act of 1964 took also easy for opponents of wilderness a long time to make it into the U.S. Code. It designations to revoke them later. started as an idea discussed by conservationists decades before becoming a law. Leaders and • So Zahniser and his allies wanted a law writers such as Theodore Roosevelt and John that would involve Congress in selecting Muir used articles, photos, and speeches to areas for more permanent designation. educate the public about the importance of • Advocates for the Wilderness Act received parks, wildlife refuges, and forest preserves. little support from Congress until the 1960s. Zahniser thought the best way to promote S ES Some federal agencies preferred to keep a wilderness law was to combine public N the power to designate wilderness areas to awareness with advocacy by large numbers R E themselves, rather than involve Congress. of groups, so he wrote articles and led the D L Wilderness Society, a large membership I W A Success and a Strategy organization. He also drafted more than 60 , s e versions of the bill that Congress debated, and ri • In 1955, Zahniser and his allies stopped the e S proposed Echo Park Dam from being built he visited congressional offices repeatedly to n o in northwestern Colorado. This successful lobby for it. The entire Wilderness Act can be ati found here: g campaign showed them the importance ti s of affecting public opinion and generating http://www.wilderness.net/NWPS/legisAct e v n letters to Congress from numerous people I In this activity, students will read and discuss m and groups. o selections from “The Need for Wilderness o r • Zahniser and his allies started journals and Areas,” which appeared in the 1956-57 issue of s s a partnered with other groups to promote a the journal The Living Wilderness. To read the Cl 2 whole article, follow this link (the document is in found at the link below. Some of the key events the appendix under Howard Zahniser): in the timeline include efforts to preserve historic sites, the Everglades, wilderness areas, http://www.wilderness.net/index. and forests, as well as to regulate pesticides cfm?fuse=toolboxes&sec=awareness# and the disposal of chemical pollution. For additional background, a timeline of land http://www.nps.gov/mabi/historyculture/ conservation policy in the 20th century can be conservation-timeline-1901-2000.htm Procedure This activity features a mix of wilderness that they would see and hear in individual work, small group work, and their home communities. whole-class discussion. In brief, students will 2. Individual writing: Ask students to complete the following tasks: individually write their own definitions of • Imagine what they would see and hear in wilderness and underline the two most a wilderness area, and write down their important concepts in their definitions. expectations. 3. Group task 1: Ask students to share their • Develop a definition of wilderness. two most important concepts with the rest of their group. One student in each group • Compare their definition to each other’s should write everyone’s two concepts on definitions and to the one in the Wilderness chart paper. Then, ask the groups to create Act. Also, discuss prohibited activities in a consensus definition of wilderness that wilderness areas. includes everyone’s concepts. (Groups • Individually, read excerpts from Zahniser’s might not reach an exact consensus, but article, and write responses to questions. all group definitions should include each student’s two most important concepts.) • In small groups, discuss excerpts from the C la article and responses to questions. 4. Whole-class discussion: Ask a s s r spokesperson from each group to report o • As a whole class, debrief the conversations. o m their consensus definition to the whole • View pictures of wilderness areas, and In class. Ask students to comment on v compare these images to what they e the similarities of the definitions. Hand s t expected wilderness to look like at the ig out copies of “Wilderness Classroom a beginning of the activity. Investigation, Handout 1” to each student. tio n Ask students to compare the definition S Present the following detailed steps to the e of wilderness from the Wilderness Act of rie students: s 1964 to their definitions. Ask students to , W 1. Hook: Ask students to imagine they are in read the paragraph from the act regarding I L the middle of a wilderness area. Ask them prohibited activities, and create lists of D E to write a short list of what they see and the activities they think are permitted and R N hear. Then ask them to write another list of prohibited in wilderness areas. Ask students E S what they would not see and hear in the to compare the lists. S 3 Note: If the activity is broken up into two • What they thought was Zahniser’s sessions, this is an ideal stopping point until most effective argument in favor of a the next session. Also, to save time during Wilderness Act. session 2, students could complete the • Which, if any, of his arguments they questions in step 5 for homework. found weak or ineffective. 5. Individual reading: Distribute “Wilderness • Who might oppose the Wilderness Classroom Investigation, Handout 2,” and Act and what arguments opponents instruct students to read the excerpts and would use. write responses to the discussion questions. • What, if any, additional arguments they would have used to promote the 6. Group task 2: Place students into their passage of the Wilderness Act. groups, and instruct them to talk with each other about their answers to the discussion 8. To conclude, show photos of BLM questions. wilderness areas, such as the ones found 7. Whole-class debriefing: Reconfigure the here: http://mypubliclands.tumblr.com/ class into one unit, and ask spokespeople tagged/wilderness. Ask students to about the discussion questions. Ask for compare the photos to how they imagined comments about: wilderness areas would look. Assessment • Ask students to write what they • Assign an explanatory essay on the think wilderness is a metaphor for, question: Why have a Wilderness Act? It and ask them to develop a poem, should include historical context of the story, or multimedia presentation Wilderness Act, benefits of wilderness, S on why wilderness is important and arguments raised in opposition of passing S E what it means to them. the act, and contemporary consequences of N R designating wilderness. E D L I W , s e ri e S n o ti a g ti s e v n I m o o r s s a Cl 4 Adaptations to Consider • In step 4, read “The Oxford English was designated, who wanted it designated, Dictionary” definition of wilderness: “an and who opposed designating it and why. uncultivated, uninhabited, and inhospitable • Hold a classroom debate on the merits of a region.” Ask students to compare this to Wilderness Act. their definitions and to Zahniser’s. • Ask students to read Article I, Section 8, of • Ask students to research wilderness the Constitution, and identify which power areas that may be in the state or region, Congress used to pass the Wilderness Act. addressing questions such as when the area Evidence-Based Responses to Student Discussion Questions in Handout 2 1. What kinds of human needs are supported threaten civilization? [Wilderness sustains by wilderness areas? [Spiritual, emotional, us, and we create civilization.] Do you agree educational, recreational.] How does with him? Why do you think he argues that Zahniser support his view that wilderness wilderness has to be saved in order to save is a fundamental human need? [The idea civilization? [Various] of wilderness is man’s own concept. The 3. What groups might object to the following preservation of wilderness is a purpose being prohibited in wilderness areas: that arises out of man’s own sense of his permanent and temporary roads, structures, fundamental needs.] Do you think he is motorized vehicles and equipment, and right? Support your answer with evidence C commercial enterprises? [Various, possibly la from the article and other evidence as s homebuilders, mining companies, all-terrain sr needed. [Various] o vehicle riders, loggers, tourism industries.] o m 2. How does Zahniser argue that preserving I 4. What is paradoxical about the lessons n v wilderness helps preserve civilization? e wilderness teaches modern people? [It s [Civilization depends on the resources shows we are both dependent on other life tig a extracted from wilderness areas and on t and must survive independently of modern io wilderness as a retreat from hectic modern n services and conveniences.] In what ways S life.] How well does Zahniser support his e are modern people both independent and r claim that destroying wilderness would ie interdependent? [Various] s , W I L D E R N E S S 5 5. The Wilderness Act says that wilderness 6. Why do you think Zahniser focuses on how areas are “where man himself is a visitor wilderness areas benefit humans instead of who does not remain.” The article says how wilderness is valuable for its own sake? “with the wilderness we are at home.” How [Various, possibly appealing to people’s do you think Zahniser would argue that self-interest as more likely to resonate with these two statements do not contradict voters and interest groups.] each other? [The second statement is metaphorical and the first is literal.] Do you think they are contradictory? [Various] S S E N R E D L I W , s e ri e S n o ti a g ti s e v n I m o o r s s a Cl 6 Wilderness Classroom Investigation, Handout 1 Instructions: by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) • Read the definition of wilderness from the has outstanding opportunities for solitude Wilderness Act of 1964, and compare this or a primitive and unconfined type of definition with the groups’ definitions. recreation; (3) has at least five thousand • Read the paragraph regarding prohibited acres of land or is of sufficient size as to activities, and write a list of activities you make practicable its preservation and use think are allowed and a list of activities you in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may think are prohibited in wilderness areas. also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or Excerpts from the Wilderness historical value.” Act of 1964 Section 4(c), Prohibition of Certain Uses: Section 2(c), Definition of Wilderness: “Except as specifically provided for in this “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas Act, and subject to existing private rights, where man and his own works dominate there shall be no commercial enterprise and the landscape, is hereby recognized as an no permanent road within any wilderness area where the earth and its community of area designated by this Act and, except as life are untrammeled by man, where man necessary to meet minimum requirements himself is a visitor who does not remain. for the administration of the area for the An area of wilderness is further defined to purpose of this Act (including measures C la mean in this Act an area of undeveloped required in emergencies involving the s s r Federal land retaining its primeval health and safety of persons within the o o m character and influence, without permanent area), there shall be no temporary road, no I n improvements or human habitation, which use of motor vehicles, motorized equipment v e is protected and managed so as to preserve or motorboats, no landing of aircraft, no s t ig its natural conditions and which (1) generally other form of mechanical transport, and no a t appears to have been affected primarily structure or installation within any such area.” io n S e r ie s , W I L D E R N E S S