Wild Spotter and Wilderness
Celebrating the 1964 Signing of the Wilderness Act

The Wild Spotter program empowers individuals to take an active role in the critical effort to identify and map invasive species within Wilderness Areas, which encompass over 20 million acres stewarded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS) across 26 states. The 75 wilderness areas within the NWRS provide essential habitats for countless wildlife species, including migratory birds, fish, mammals, and many threatened and endangered species. By engaging in Wild Spotter, volunteers help safeguard these unique ecosystems by detecting invasive species early, enabling timely management responses that prevent habitat degradation and preserve the biodiversity of these remote and protected natural areas. Citizen engagement amplifies the effectiveness of conservation efforts, fostering community awareness and building a dedicated network to protect our nation’s wild treasures.

Six decades ago, on Sept. 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed into law an Act that established a National Wilderness Preservation System “...for the permanent good of the whole people.” Today, the National Wilderness Preservation System consists of more than 800 areas—nearly 112 million acres in total—an area larger than the state of California. The Forest Service administers more than half of the areas (448) and about a third of the total acreage (almost 36.6 million) of the entire system. These ecologically and culturally important lands and waters are managed to protect their ecological integrity and untrammeled wilderness character. People have developed personal and deep connections to these wild places, and the Forest Service works tirelessly to protect these areas from an array of threats and impacts, including preventing invasions of aquatic and terrestrial invasive species into Wilderness areas. The Wild Spotter program was established in 2017 to provide an effective mechanism for the public to help prevent and control invasive species in Wilderness areas and other wild places. Wild Spotter program technology helps visitors find and map invasive species in these wild places so natural resource professionals can more rapidly respond before the invasions can establish and spread. Additionally, the Forest Service stewards over 5,000 miles of Wild & Scenic Rivers (WSR) corridors designated for protection by Congress and works to protect those corridors from harmful exotic invasions of plants and animals. To date, every National Forest and National Grassland, and every Forest Service Wilderness Area and WSR have been included in the Wild Spotter Program. Raising public awareness of the threats from invasive species to Wilderness Areas and WSRs has been a key component of the Wild Spotter Program and has advanced action to detect, prevent and control invasions from Alaska to the Caribbean. Visitors to any of the beautiful places across the National Forest System can join the Forest Service to protect America’s wild landscapes from invasive species.

Congress established a National Wilderness Preservation System in 1964 “for the permanent good of the whole people.” Known as the Wilderness Act, this act defined wilderness and set aside existing federal land meeting certain criteria of natural qualities, primitive recreation opportunities, size, and other values. The BLM manages 263 wilderness areas, covering 10.1 million acres in 10 western states. Wilderness areas constitute almost 30 percent of the National Conservation Lands, which are nationally significant landscapes managed by the BLM. These diverse landscapes include deserts, forests, and mountains both large and small; some near urban areas and others in ruggedly remote places. Visitors can explore off-trail, fish, hike, ride horseback, hunt, take photographs, and enjoy other primitive and unconfined recreation. Wilderness gives visitors space for solitude and reflection—relief from the busy world. It also preserves biodiversity by protecting critical habitat for plants and animals, including rare and endangered species. All public lands, including wilderness, are traditional ancestral lands of American Indian Tribes. These lands have sustained Indigenous peoples since time immemorial, and Tribes maintain cultural connections to these landscapes today. Invasive species negatively impact these culturally important places and threaten the environmental integrity and productivity of lands and waters. In coordination with other federal land management agencies, Tribes, state and local partners, and the private sector, the BLM utilizes the Wild Spotter Program to help raise public awareness and advance the use of citizen science technology to help find and map invasive species across all National Conservation Lands, including Wilderness areas. Visitors can play an important role in protecting public lands while they explore these special wild places by becoming Wild Spotter volunteers. Protecting these special places requires active stewardship and responsible use, and visitors can download the free Wild Spotter mobile applications to keep the National Wilderness Preservation System free of invasive species.