Wilderness Islands offer a unique opportunity for solitude.
NPS/Wingate
Ten miles offshore, wilderness barrier islands provide opportunities for people to experience quiet and solitude. Places to observe wildlife. Places to explore. Places to escape the daily life. Places to preserve uninhibited wilderness, and all of the birds, mammals, fish, and wildlife that goes along with it.
Horn Island and Petit Bois Island were designated in 1978 as the Gulf Islands National Seashore Wilderness because they, “include the only remaining examples of undisturbed natural coast and off-coast islands along the entire northern Gulf.” The wilderness areas in Gulf Islands National Seashore are among increasingly few wild places left on Earth, where humans are merely visitors instead of permanent residents.
The National Wilderness Preservation System protects over 111 million acres of federal public land through wilderness designation, managed by the National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and US Forest Service. The NPS is responsible for the stewardship of over 44 million acres of designated wilderness. When combined with other NPS lands managed as wilderness per policy, over 80 percent of all NPS lands are managed as wilderness.
The wilderness areas in Gulf Islands National Seashore are among increasingly few wild places left on Earth, where natural processes play out in this marine environment.
Gulf Islands National Seashore is the largest seashore in the country managing seven islands, two of which are designated wilderness. It is with everyone's help following ethics that these islands remain preserved.
