Message to the Congress Transmitting the Annual Report;' on the National Wilderness Preservation System.

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to transmit to the Congress the Sixth Annual Report on the Status of the National Wilderness Preservation System, and to affirm this Administration's intent to pursue the objectives of the National Wilderness Act aggressively in the coming months.

Wilderness is a magnificent part of the American heritage. The wilderness that witnessed the nation's birth no longer spreads from one ocean to the other, but neither has it all been tamed. Many of these untamed lands, majestic reminders of primeval America, have been reserved and now comprise the National Wilderness Preservation System. We must do more now to preserve additional areas of this priceless national heritage.

During 1969, I signed into law the addition of two new units to the National Wilderness Preservation System. However, I am convinced that in the past we have moved too slowly, in both the executive and the legislative branches, towards the goal of completion of our national wilderness system.

I have asked that the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior begin Immediately to augment their efforts in the study of possible wilderness areas, as directed by the Act, and to accelerate the study schedules which they have been following. I have asked them to review their needs for additional resources and will ask the Congress for any additional funding which may be needed to make this new wilderness effort possible.

On the legislative side, the Congress now has before it twenty wilderness proposals transmitted by the previous Administration and endorsed by this Administration. Early action on these measures would represent the quickest way to expand our wilderness system. Therefore, I urge the Congress to give speedy and favorable consideration to as many of these proposals as possible at this session of the Congress.

I look forward to the next annual report on the wilderness system, confident that I will be able to report substantial and encouraging progress on both the study and the enactment of wilderness proposals. I cannot stress too strongly my conviction that we must push vigorously ahead to preserve for future generations the opportunity to enjoy the singular encounter with nature which only wilderness can provide.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House

August 5, 1970