The Size of the Wilderness System

as of January, 2003

The National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) in the United States continues to grow every year from the original 9.1 million acres. Current figures show the size to be 104,759,347 acres; 628 areas are designated Wilderness.

Alaska contains 58,182,216 of the total acres, which is about 56%.4.4% of the continental United States is protected as Wilderness.

For the first four years of the NWPS, there were 54 Forest Service wildernesses, with six added in 1968 and two more added in 1969.

In 1970, some National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Wilderness areas were added, bringing the total number of wildernesses to 85.

The following decade saw steady additions in all four agencies. In 1984 the number of FS wildernesses more than doubled, from 187 to 395, and the number of BLM wildernesses increased more than five times, from three to 16.

In 1990, BLM wilderness again more than tripled, from 18 to 57. Passage of the California Desert Protection Act of 1994 more than doubled the number of BLM wildernesses to 129.

source: www.wilderness.net