"What Is Idaho Wilderness in a Changing World?"

"The future will require tough trade-offs over protecting species, wildness and the way humans experience the backcountry"

"GOSPEL-HUMP WILDERNESS - The trail to Lower Gospel Lake is steep, unmaintained and poorly marked.

Hikers drop 700 feet in less than a mile into a thick forest of pine and fir filled with huckleberries, beargrass and blooming Indian paintbrush. Then they climb 300 feet to an alpine lake with cutthroat trout and a tall rounded peak rising from its crystal waters.

The scene captures the spirit of the 1964 Wilderness Act, to preserve 'an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.'"

Rocky Barker reports for the Idaho Statesman September 2, 2014.

SEE ALSO:

"How the Wilderness Act changed Oregon (and America)" (Salem Statesman Journal)

"Op-Ed: What the Wilderness Act Has Taught Us" (Los Angeles Times)

"Celebrating 50 Years of the Wilderness Act" (KQED)