ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author observes examples of good and bad purity. By his definition, bad purity is when a wilderness manager, whether he is with the Fish and Wildlife Service, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, or National Park Service, feels insulted. Because Congress passes a law directing that we manage wilderness in a certain way when all the time that manager felt he had the expertise to manage it without a law being passed. Good purity is when we honestly as managers try to go back to the basic philosophy of why we have wilderness, and starting from there look at what Congress told us in the legislation of how we should manage a particular wilderness area. To pursue a course of abdication, saying, the important point is to try to anchor the original intent of the Wilderness Act and the exceptions specifically directed by Congress.
