LESSON 1 Rewriting the Wilderness Act

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Nicholas Edwards
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1 LESSON 1 Rewriting the Wilderness Act Objectives: Students will: Read the Wilderness Act of 1964 and rewrite phrases in their own words. Duration: 1 to 2 class periods Location: indoors or outdoors Background: Passed by Congress in 1964, this Act has tremendous ramifications for natural resource use in the United States. This activity introduces phrases of the Act for students to put into their own words. Activity 1: Rewriting the Wilderness Act Materials: Wilderness Act in Wilderness: An Overview section, pages Wilderness cards, page 281 or use laminated cards from Í Wilderness Box dictionary paper, pencil or pen chalkboard butcher paper or flip chart video: Í Wild By Law student handout discussion questions: Wild by Law, page 282. Procedure: 1. Divide students into small working groups of two to three per group. Make copies of the Wilderness Act from the Wilderness: An Overview section, page 46. Distribute one copy of the Wilderness Act handout [Section 2 (a) and (c)] to each group. Ask students to read the Act out loud. 2. Make phrase cards and pass out one phrase card to each group. Encourage students to look up words in the cards they do not understand. Ask student groups to read each phrase card, discuss with each other what the phrase means and rewrite it in their own words. Allow 15 minutes for each group to describe their particular phrase. 3. Ask each group to first present their phrase cards, then share their new versions. Do this in numerical order. 4. Record the new versions in order on the chalk board or on butcher paper. Page 279

2 È Procedure continued: 5. Each student will use the new phrases from the group exercise and create a new version of the Wilderness Act, adding connecting words and sentence structure. 6. Watch the Wild By Law video and assign as a group discussion or as an individual assignment the Wild By Law discussion questions, page 282. Video length is one hour, so you may want to break it into segments. Provide copies of the discussion questions so the students know what to look for. Encourage students to take notes during the video. Evaluation / Follow-up / Extension Evaluate the final draft of Wilderness Act rewrite. Evaluate the student responses to the Wild By Law discussion questions. Career Options: nature writer, technical writer, policy maker, Wilderness manager Page 280

3 Activity: Rewriting the Wilderness Act WILDERNESS ACT PHRASE CARDS Opportunities for Solitude No Mechanized or Motorized Vehicles are allowed To Insure that Humans Do Not Occupy or Modify All Areas of the U.S. For Future Use and Enjoyment as Wilderness For Present and Future Generations Untrammelled by Humans A Visitor That Does Not Remain Designated by Congress Affected Primarily by the Forces of Nature Enduring Resource of Wilderness In Contrast with Areas where Humans Dominate the Landscape Primeval Character and Influence Not Modified By Humans Ecological Value Preservation Where the Imprint of Humans is Substantially Unnoticable Wilderness Character National Wilderness Preservation System Without Permanent Improvements or Human Habitation Natural Condition Page 281

4 È STUDENT HANDOUT Wild by Law Discussion Questions 1. Who were the three men who fought for the National Wilderness Preservation System? 2. Describe what symbolic & physical effects the automobile had on Wilderness. 3. What is the thing Americans did that no other country had ever done? 4. What did the 20th century provide, in the name of progress, for the average American citizen? 5. Describe Aldo Leopold s professional and personal life. Explain how Aldo Leopold s attitudes toward wildlife changed. 6. Name the first official Wilderness area in the United States. When did this happen? 7. What was Bob Marshall s answer to the question: How many Wilderness areas do we need? 8. In one paragraph each, describe Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Howard Zahniser. What did they all share in common? What were their unique contributions for wilderness? 9. What did the Dust Bowl years teach people? How did these attributes affect wilderness? 10. What was the greatest threat to wilderness after the Depression? 11. Why do you think A Sand Country Almanac is such an important book? 12. What was the wilderness movement of the 20th century about? 13. By 1950, how many conservation organizations were there in America? What were their concerns regarding wilderness? 14. Explain the controversy and history of Dinosaur National Monument. What did the controversy have in common with Hetch Hetchy in the Yosemite Valley? 15. How long did it take to pass the Wilderness Act? How many versions of the bill were there before one passed? How many congressional hearings were held? 16. What is the National Wilderness Preservation System? What acreage and percentage of the land base in America is currently designated Wilderness? 17. Will America ever be done with the debate over how much land to protect? To develop? Explain your answer. 18. Describe in one paragraph how you felt when you heard the wolf howl. Page 282

5 TEACHER HANDOUT: Answer Key Wild By Law Discussion Questions 1. Who were the three men who fought to save 90 million acres of Wilderness? Response: Aldo Leopold, Bob Marshall, and Howard Zahniser 2. Describe what symbolic & physical effects the automobile had on Wilderness? Possible Response: The automobile was a symbol of freedom and progress. It made the Wilderness accessible. Roads brought people tourists, loggers, miners, and builders. Cars and roads took people to see the country. Answers may vary. 3. What is the thing American did that no other country had ever done? Possible Response: It passed a law to protect its last remnants of wild land forever. 4. What did the twentieth century provide, in the name of progress, for the average American citizen? Response: A vote, the national anthem, a bank account, and a high opinion of himself/herself. 5. Describe Aldo Leopold s professional and personal life. Explain how Aldo Leopold s attitudes toward wildlife changed. Possible Response: Aldo Leopold was a forester who saw his job as one of managing the wilderness. He initially felt fewer wolves would mean more deer; meaning no wolves would provide a hunter s paradise. After watching the green fire die in the wolves eyes, he sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view. (Over the years he watched wolves hunted down, and deer multiply, then weaken and die.) He came to the conclusion that the highest use for this land is no use at all. We need to set certain corners of the Earth aside as Wilderness. 6. Name the first official Wilderness area in the United States. When did this happen? Response: The Gila Wilderness, in It represents deserts and ancient cliff dwellings. 7. What was Bob Marshall s answer to the question, How many Wilderness areas do we need? Response: He answered, How many Brahm s symphonies do we need? 8. In one paragraph each: Describe Bob Marshall, Aldo Leopold, Howard Zahniser. What did they all share in common? What were their unique contributions for Wilderness? Possible Response: Aldo Leopold was a thinker, a scientist, a family man; a forester, turned philosopher. Bob Marshall was a wealthy man; a millionaire turned socialist, an adventurer who liked to hike and count things; and an exuberant mountain man. Howard Zahniser was a tireless bureaucrat who possessed a love for wild places he seldom saw. All three men were passionate that something was being lost, something sacred, something important was vanishing. Page 283

6 È TEACHER HANDOUT: Answer Key Wild By Law Discussion Questions 9. What did the Dust Bowl years teach people? How did these attitudes effect Wilderness? Possible Response: One-third of the nation s topsoil had blown away. Something had gone awry-a bulldozer mentality. It taught people how scientific knowledge, expertise, and technology could be misused and misapplied. We ve not always been prudent. We need to reexamine our thinking and ways of doing. 10. What was the greatest threat to Wilderness after the Depression? Possible Response: Tourism. The wilderness was in danger of being loved to death. We built an expanding web of roads through the national parks. 11. Why do you think A Sand County Almanac is such an important book? Possible Response: The book says things people feel deep in their hearts but don t know how to say. It provides a sense of relationship to the land, the morality of people relative to other species, and the importance of beauty. 12. What was the Wilderness movement of the 20th century about? Response: It was about restraining urban, industrialism and redefining progress and development. 13. By 1950, how many conservation organizations were there in America? What were there concerns regarding Wilderness? Response: 300 organizations. Wilderness preservation had become a national crusade. 14. Explain the controversy and history of Dinosaur National Monument. What did the controversy have in common with Hetch Hetchy in the Yosemite Valley? Possible Response: The Dinosaur National Monument was designated to protect a wild canyon from being dammed. Conservation groups urged people to float the Green River to see what would be destroyed. The public feared that what had happened with the damming of Hetch Hetchy in Yosemite National Park would happen here. They didn t want to repeat this disaster. Preservationists won a national battle for Wilderness and against developments in national parks. 15. How long did it take to pass the Wilderness Act? How many versions of the bill were there before one passed? How many Congressional hearings were held? Response: Howard Zahniser spent 8 years lobbying for the passage of the Wilderness Act. He saw 66 bills through rewrites, and spoke at all 18 congressional hearings around the country. 16. What is the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS)? What acreage and percentage of the land base in America is currently designated as Wilderness? Possible Response: Zahniser s solution was to create a NWPS, giving Congress power to designate permanent Wilderness areas. 9 million acres were preserved as NWPS in 25 years. The system contains nearly 104 million acres, or 4 percent of the country. Page 284

7 TEACHER HANDOUT: Answer Key Wild By Law Discussion Questions 17. Will Americans ever be done with the debate over how much land to protect? To develop? Explain your answer. Possible Response: Answers may vary. People argued for a redefinition of progress. They wanted America to change its mind. Saving the last vast tracts of wildlands was a new way of understanding the world and seeing the wildness in small things. 18. Describe in one paragraph how you felt when you heard the wolf howl. Possible Response: Answers may vary! Page 285

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