Celebrating 60 years of the Boundary Waters this Earth Day

Join us in celebrating America’s natural ecosystems: September is Wilderness Month, and we’re commemorating from the Boundary Waters to Capitol Hill

This year is the 60th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, a landmark conservation bill signed into law on Sept. 3, 1964. The Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System, thus protecting 112 million acres of wilderness areas from coast to coast – including the Boundary Waters. The Boundary Waters was one of the nine original wilderness areas designated under this law.

In honor of this anniversary, conservation organizations (including Save the Boundary Waters!), leaders, businesses, and lawmakers from across the country are coming together to honor and celebrate this bedrock environmental law and have declared September to be Wilderness Month.

For Wilderness Month, we’re organizing special events in northern Minnesota, the Twin Cities, and Washington D.C. with our many allies. Stay tuned for ways to celebrate, get involved, and take action from every corner of the country.

If you’re in Minnesota, be sure to mark your calendar for Saturday, September 28, at Como Lakeside Pavilion in Saint Paul, MN, for a day of Wilderness celebrations! More details to come.

President Johnson with group of men signing wilderness act

History of the Wilderness Act

On September 3, 1964, the Wilderness Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson. The Wilderness Act established the National Wilderness Preservation System and is considered one of the most pivotal conservation efforts for America’s public lands. Howard Zahniser, who led the Wilderness Society, authored the act with the help of many notable conservationists. The lead sponsor in the US Senate was Minnesota’s own Senator Hubert Humphrey. The Boundary Waters Canoe Area was one of the first Wilderness areas established by the Act.

The Act recognized the value of preserving special places like the Boundary Waters, “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Today the Wilderness System contains over 111 million acres of public lands with over 800 Wilderness Areas in 44 states. Wilderness areas exist within National Forests, National Parks, Bureau of Land Management Lands and National Wildlife Refuges.