With nearly the lowest amount of federally designated wilderness, in a strict geographical sense Pennsylvanians may not have as much to celebrate as residents in most other states on Wednesday, Sept. 3, the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act of 1964. Of states with wilderness areas, only New York has less official wilderness acreage - 1,380 acres - than Pennsylvania, which is home to 9,002 acres in two wilderness areas.
However, historically Pennsylvanians have a lot to take notice of in the upcoming 50th anniversary. The late Howard Zahniser, the primary author of the Wilderness Act while he was an executive and editor with The Wilderness Society, was born in Franklin, Pa., and grew up in nearby Tionesta.
The National Wilderness Preservation System was created when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Wilderness Act into law on Sept. 3, 1964. The act defines Wilderness as areas where the earth and its communities of life are left unchanged by people, where the primary forces of nature are in control, and where people themselves are visitors who do not remain.
In the past 50 years, Congress has added more than 100 million acres in 758 wilderness areas, managed by all four federal land agencies - the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, and National Park Service.
Pennsylvania's two wilderness areas were designated in 1984, the Allegheny Islands Wilderness of 372 acres on seven islands in the Allegheny River, upriver of Tionesta, and the Hickory Creek Wilderness of 8,630 acres in Allegheny National Forest in Warren County.
The seven islands of the Allegheny Islands Wilderness are stretched along 56 miles of the river, from Buckaloons Recreation Area downriver to Tionesta, and covered by river-bottom trees like willow, sycamore and silver maple. Crull's, at 96 acres, is the largest, followed by Thompson's and Baker, both 67 acres; Courson, 62 acres; King, 36 acres; R. Thompson's, 30 acres; and No-Name, 10 acres.
The densely forested Hickory Creek Wilderness Area ranges in elevation from 1,273 feet to 1,900 feet. The looping, 12-mile Hickory Creek Trail is the only designated trail within the wilderness, available for day hikes and overnight backpacking.
Among the few observances of the anniversary in Pennsylvania, the Friends of Allegheny Wilderness, a Warren-based non-profit organization, and the Crary Art Gallery, a regional art museum in Warren, will host an exhibition of wilderness images by high-profile photographers throughout September.
The show will feature photographs from throughout America's National Wilderness Preservation System by Craig Blacklock, Clyde Butcher, Robert Clements, Kevin Ebi, Robbie George, Stephen Gorman, Robert Glenn Ketchum, Scot Miller, David Muench, Marc Muench and Mark Muse. In addition, the winning photos in a local contest focused on the two Pennsylvania wilderness area will be on exhibit, photos by Judy Cole Blank of Warren and Mark Hulings of Corry.