wil·der·ness |  ˈwil-dər-nəs ¹

1. a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings
   
2. an area essentially undisturbed by human activity together with its naturally developed life community
   
3. an empty or pathless area or region
4. wild or uncultivated state
   
5. a bewildering situation

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Wilderness

1n 1964, the 88th Congress of the United States of America passed The Wilderness Act.² It was the first time that the term “wilderness” was legally defined and it designated 9.1 million acres of protected federal land as wilderness.³

In the Wilderness Act, wilderness was defined as: “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his 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.“

In National Parks across the country, the people who work there are constantly making decisions about what wilderness means in practice. In turns out the definition is both vague and specific, lofty and presumptuous. 

There are many wilderness areas throughout the country including Fire Island⁴ (where we also spent time filming) and Badlands Wilderness⁵. These areas have no manmade elements, and they are managed to be as “natural” as possible. 

In order to define what is “natural”, two things need to happen. 1/ Human intervention has to be defined as unnatural and 2/ A certain time has to be decided on as the marker of when the place stopped being natural, so that the recourse managers and rangers can work towards “returning” the area to its “natural” state. This is often what is understood as preservation.

The Badlands have chosen around 1890, the time before European Settlement. They work to return the area to what it would have been like then - restoring the bison herds, managing the invasive grasses, nurturing the native species. But times have changed. For example the bison are contained within the Badlands National Park even though they are a migratory species and would ordinarily be roaming free.

3. Wikipedia. 2021. “Wilderness Act.” Last modified 1 November 2021. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness_Act ︎︎︎