Advanced Wilderness Search

Enter your search criteria below. You can also use the A-to-Z wilderness list, search by location on a map, or search by name or state. For aggregated tables of wilderness data, view the wilderness summary reports.

Select a State Or Agency Region:

State:

Agency Region:

Agency:

Select/Deselect All Agencies

Bureau of Land Management

Fish and Wildlife Service

Forest Service

National Park Service

Show only wilderness areas managed by more than one agency, including any selected above

Acreage:

Acreage Operator:

Acres:

Designation:

First Year:

Second Year:

Exploring Wilderness Data

The Federal laws that established individual wilderness unit, beginning with the Wilderness Act of 1964 and including all subsequent wilderness legislation, are the legally correct source for the wilderness names, locations, original acreage, and dates of designation. Wilderness Connect's National Wilderness Preservation System database, searchable using the form above, began with the following publication, which compiled the legislated acres for all designated wilderness areas: Landres, Peter; Meyer, Shannon. 2000. National Wilderness Preservation System database: key attributes and trends, 1964 through 1999. Gen. Tech. Rep. RMRS-GTR-18-Revised Edition. Ogden, UT: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Rocky Mountain Research Station. 97 p. Download this publication. Current reported acreage figures are the sum of administrative unit acreages reported by each wilderness' managing agency or agencies through annual realty reports.

The most recent data updates include:

2/5/20: 22,877 acre Kootznoowoo Wilderness inholding added (only last 4,766 added on this date; the remainder was already included in annual updates between 2016 and 2020)
2/12/20: Multiple acreages updated for NPS wildernesses to be consistent with 2018 National Wilderness Report (significant changes mainly to Alaska wildernesses)
6/2/20: Multiple acreages updated for BLM wildernesses to be consistent with second quarter NLCS acreages
7/19/21: 9,617 acre Sabinoso Wilderness donation added
1/12/22: Multiple acreages updated for BLM, FWS, FS, NPS wildernesses to be consistent with current agency acreage figures