09/03/2016 10:13 AM EDT
The Wilderness Act – enacted on this day in 1964 – defines a wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” In the following 52 years, over 109 million acres of pristine forests, mountains, deserts and wetlands have been protected, giving all Americans the opportunity to escape into nature. Photo of the Steelhead Falls Wilderness Study Area in Oregon by Jeff Clark, @mypubliclands
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