Howard Zahniser

Howard Zahniser (25 February 1906 – 5 May 1964) (pronounced "ZON-i-ser") was an American environmental activist and the primary author of the Wilderness Act of 1964.

Quotes

 * The fact is that it is the land that has made us all Americans, and the moral is that it is the land which must be preserved to save our Americanism. Soil erosion, forest exploitation, and wildlife destruction are more insidious anti-American activities than Communism, Fascism, or foreign propagandizing.
 * "Indoors and Out", Nature Magazine number 33 (May 1940) p. 255, quoted in Mark Harvey, Wilderness Forever (2005) p. 45


 * A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a member of the natural community, a wanderer who visits but does not remain and whose travels leave only trails.
 * From an early draft of the Wilderness Act (S. 1176, submitted to the Senate 11 February 1957, as reprinted in The Living Wilderness volume 21, number 59, Winter-Spring 1956-57, p. 26-36)


 * A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape, is hereby recognized as an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man, where man himself is a visitor who does not remain.
 * The Wilderness Act (Public Law 88-577; 16 USC 1131-1136; approved 3 September 1964)