For most people, wilderness connotes wild, untouched, untrammeled, and remote places. Some find spending time in wilderness areas enriching and spiritually uplifting. These are the people who disappear into the backcountry for days or weeks on end, savoring the solitude that surrounds them. Others find the entire concept scary. It’s the same feeling I get when I swim in the ocean: the terror of what’s circling in the dark waters below me so consumes my psyche that swimming becomes secondary to survival.

The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines wilderness as “an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.” Its purpose is to preserve and protect the natural ecosystems and wild areas, while also providing opportunities for solitude and retrospective or primitive recreation.

Today, there are 765 wilderness areas covering more than 109 million acres. And, while that number should suggest broad public engagement in wilderness protection, 80% of the current population was not born when the Wilderness Act was passed!

Interestingly, not all wilderness areas are whole. In fact, in our lower 48 states, approximately 180,000 acres of private inholdings remain within federally designated wilderness areas. These parcels, which range in size, are ripe for development particularly if they are also accessible. Who’s to stop someone from building a mega-mansion in the middle of a wilderness area, or deciding a mining claim should be exploited?

That’s where The Wilderness Land Trust comes in. For 30 years, TWLT has been acquiring unprotected private land within designated wilderness and returning it to public ownership. With 55,200 acres permanently protected and 523 parcels of formerly private land now under public ownership, the Trust’s work is felt far and wide due to its successful removal of real and present development threats. As a result of the Trust’s tenacity, more than 17 million acres of wilderness remain intact, a number that truly explains its broad impact on national and global conservation strategies.

Celebrate the Trust’s 30th birthday by learning about its first 30 years here. I’d love to know what wilderness means to you, and how we can continue to attract a new generation of wilderness lovers.