Excerpts from the report Introduction: The Forest Service, U. S. Department of Agriculture, pioneered the concept of wilderness management on the Nation's public lands in 1924 when it designated a 433,000-acre area in the Gila National Forest in New Mexico to receive protection of its unique wilderness values. This was the first of many such National Forest areas to receive special wilderness protection and management by the Forest Service. The Wilderness Act of 1964 established a National Wilderness Preservation System… "to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness." The original components of this Wilderness System were 54 National Forest areas containing 9.1 million acres which the Forest Service had designated as wilderness, wild or canoe areas.
