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Do only pure, pristine, and virgin lands qualify for Wilderness designation? |
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No. The Wilderness Act of 1964 carefully defines Wilderness as "an
area of undeveloped federal land retaining its primeval character and influence and
which generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature,
with the imprint of man's work substantially unnoticeable."
The
Forest Service's"purity" doctrine was repudiated by Congress
in 1975 in the Eastern Wilderness Act and the Endangered American Wilderness
Act of 1978.
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