Authored by: Dick Fiddler, longtime Sierra Club Member, volunteer, and wilderness advocate
The establishment of a large Alpine Lakes Wilderness including valleys as well as peaks was a fine achievement all on its own, but its greatest legacy may be what came next.
The first Congressionally-designated wilderness areas were established only a decade earlier with the landmark Wilderness Act of 1964, and during the Alpine Lakes campaign the concept of federally designated wilderness was still being defined. At the time, wilderness opponents and many within the Forest Service argued that wilderness protections should only be granted to areas steeped in solitude—majestic, but inaccessible. That interpretation conveniently allowed logging to continue in the valleys where the trails were. With the creation of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness, so close to a major city and so frequently visited by outdoor recreationists, Congress put an end to that narrow interpretation.
Beyond reshaping the nation’s understanding of wilderness, the campaign to protect the Alpine Lakes became a training ground for the next generation of conservation advocates. Organizations learned how to build power through broad coalitions and sustained community support over years of effort to ultimately influence legislators. These lessons echoed far beyond Washington State, creating momentum for the wilderness movement nationwide.
Just two years after Alpine Lakes, Congress passed the Endangered American Wilderness Act. Signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on February 24, 1978, it protected 1.3 million acres of national forest land across 10 western states. In 1980, wilderness advocates celebrated another victory with the passage of the monumental Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, safeguarding a stunning 50+ million acres of new national parks, wildlife refuges, and wilderness areas. In 1977,the Carter Administration also began the first truly comprehensive inventory of Forest Service lands that still were wild. This inventory, called RARE II (Roadless Area Review and Evaluation) led to a much better understanding of the millions of acres of public wild lands deserving of protection, and set the stage for the enactment of a multitude of state wilderness bills in 1984..
Of course the Alpine Lakes didn’t cause all these great results by itself. But the strategies, enthusiasm, and momentum created by the Alpine Lakes campaign were integral to the successful campaigns to establish wilderness elsewhere in the nation. We learned how important it was to have the backing of governors and key members of Congress. We learned how to train our volunteers and staff in lobbying techniques and organizing and communications skills. (Special callout to the inspirational Club NW Rep Doug Scott, who brought his deep legislative knowledge at just the right time!) We learned how to raise the money we needed to have our people in Washington DC at the critical moments. We learned how to create local coalitions to broaden the public support for wildlands protection. And the Sierra Club itself learned that it needed a strong, professional office in DC to focus these activities. And now fifty years later the U.S. features over 800 federally designated wilderness areas encompassing roughly 111.8 million acres across 44 states and Puerto Rico.
The work is far from finished, but every conservation effort now carries the lessons first gleaned in the effort to protect the Alpine Lakes, because it’s essential to have a good roadmap for how to get things done! And this 50th anniversary serves as a reminder of what committed people can accomplish when they unite around a shared vision to protect what they love.
