---
kind: "section"
citation: "16 U.S.C. § 1131"
title: "16"
title_heading: "Conservation"
number: "1131"
heading: "National Wilderness Preservation System"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/16/1131"
units:
  - "Chapter 23 — National Wilderness Preservation System"
---

# §1131. National Wilderness Preservation System

- (a) **Establishment; Congressional declaration of policy; wilderness areas; administration for public use and enjoyment, protection, preservation, and gathering and dissemination of information; provisions for designation as wilderness areas—** In order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition, it is hereby declared to be the policy of the Congress to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13). For this purpose there is hereby established a [National Wilderness Preservation System](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) to be composed of federally owned [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) designated by Congress as “[wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A)”, and these shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13), and so as to provide for the protection of these [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A), the preservation of their [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13); and no [Federal lands](/usc/16/620e.md?p=2) shall be designated as “[wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A)” except as provided for in this chapter or by a subsequent Act.
- (b) **Management of area included in System; appropriations—** The inclusion of an [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) in the [National Wilderness Preservation System](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) notwithstanding, the [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) shall continue to be managed by the Department and agency having jurisdiction thereover immediately before its inclusion in the [National Wilderness Preservation System](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) unless otherwise provided by Act of Congress. No appropriation shall be available for the payment of expenses or salaries for the administration of the [National Wilderness Preservation System](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) as a separate [unit](/usc/16/430f–7.md?p=4) nor shall any appropriations be available for additional personnel stated as being required solely for the purpose of managing or administering [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) solely because they are included within the [National Wilderness Preservation System](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13).
- (c) **“Wilderness” defined—** A [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13), in contrast with those [areas](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain. An [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) of [wilderness](/usc/16/3102.md?p=13) is further defined to mean in this chapter an [area](/usc/16/539m–1.md?p=1-A) of undeveloped [Federal land](/usc/16/3102.md?p=2) retaining its primeval character and influence, without permanent improvements or human habitation, which is protected and managed so as to [preserve](/usc/16/698u–1.md?p=2) its natural conditions and which (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man’s work substantially unnoticeable; (2) has outstanding opportunities for solitude or a primitive and unconfined type of recreation; (3) has at least five thousand acres of land or is of sufficient size as to make practicable its preservation and use in an unimpaired condition; and (4) may also contain ecological, geological, or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 88–577, § 2, Sept. 3, 1964, 78 Stat. 890.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Short Title

Pub. L. 88–577, § 1, Sept. 3, 1964, 78 Stat. 890, provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] may be cited as the ‘Wilderness Act’.”