Grand Canyon celebrates 50th anniversary of Wilderness Act Thursday

GRAND CANYON, Ariz. -Grand Canyon National Park is celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act Thursday.

Grand Canyon National Park features a wilderness area of 94 percent and is protected under the Wilderness Act. The Act provides one of the highest level of preservation and protection of public land in the United States and was written by Howard Zahniser of the Wilderness Society. It went through more than 60 drafts before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed it into law on Sept. 3, 1964. The act protected 9.1 million acres of federal land and it gave the United States a legal definition of wilderness.

According to the Wilderness Act, "A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized 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."

When the Wilderness Act was signed into law, the National Wilderness Prevention System (NWPS) was created. Designed to provide designated areas of wilderness with the highest level of government protection, it laid out four distinct areas of land that are protected, including: national forests, national parks, national wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Land Management acreage. The areas designated as wilderness in the U.S. totals 109.5 million acres in 44 different states and Puerto Rico.

The 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act is celebrated across the nation. The National Wilderness Conference takes place

in Albuquerque, New Mexico on Oct. 15-19. Museum exhibits and a photography display called Wilderness Forever is on display at the Smithsonian's National History Museum in Washington D.C. Wilderness Week is celebrated the third week of September in Washington D.C.

Grand Canyon National Park will celebrate the golden anniversary with a series of events that kicks off Thursday. The Grand Canyon School band will perform The Grand Canyon Suite at 11:30 a.m. at Mather Point at the Grand Canyon Visitor Center.

Former U.S. Rep. Paul "Pete" McCloskey and local author Scott Thybony will have a special presentation at 7:30 p.m. at Shrine of the Ages auditorium.

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