Wilderness area Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
A wilderness area is an area of land that is protected from human encroachment. Many nations have designated wilderness areas including South Africa and the United States. World Conservation Union (IUCN) classifies wilderness at two levels, Ia (Strict Nature Preserves) and Ib (Wilderness areas).In the U.S., a wilderness area is an area within federal lands which is set aside by statute as a nature preserve. Human activities in wilderness areas are restricted to scientific study, hiking and camping; horses are allowed but no motorized vehicles or equipment. The National Wilderness Preservation System coordinates the wilderness activities of four federal agencies - Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Wilderness areas are parts of national parks, wildlife refugees, national forests and may include land in several diferent units managed by different agencies. There are 662 wilderness areas in the U.S., preserving 105,695,176 acres (427,733 km2). This is almost 5% of the entire United States and almost the size of Iraq. Wilderness areas exist in 44 of the 50 states.
Most U.S. wilderness areas are in National Forests but the largest amount of wilderness land is administered by the National Park Service. The largest contiguous wilderness complex in the United States is the Noatak and Gates of the Arctic Wildernesses in Alaska at 12,743,329 acres (51,570 km).
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