Presidential Documents

Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 6, 2023 / Presidential Documents 60879 

Proclamation 10616 of August 31, 2023 

National Wilderness Month, 2023 

By the President of the United States of America 

A Proclamation 

America’s natural wonders are marvels of the world. People travel across 

seas and continents to behold the spirit of this great land embodied by 

our majestic mountains, breathtaking deserts, emerald valleys, and mighty 

rivers. During National Wilderness Month, we celebrate the power and promise of our country’s extraordinary natural gifts and renew our commitment 

to protecting them for generations to come. 

When we conserve our country’s landscapes and wilderness, we do more 

than preserve their beauty for our own enjoyment. We safeguard the future 

of people who depend on and sustain the land as a way of life—Indigenous 

peoples, farmers and ranchers, recreation businesses, and rural communities. 

We enshrine landmarks that identify the places where the history of our 

Nation was made. We protect sacred spaces that have been stewarded by 

Tribal Nations since time immemorial. And we mitigate the impacts of 

climate change to help make our country more resilient. 

A respect for nature’s ability to support and enrich our lives has led my 

Administration to develop the most ambitious land and water conservation 

agenda in American history. During my first week in office, I issued an 

Executive Order establishing the country’s first-ever National Conservation 

Goal to conserve at least 30 percent of our lands and waters by 2030. 

It is the cornerstone of my ‘‘America the Beautiful’’ campaign to support 

locally led and voluntary conservation and restoration efforts across the 

country. I also signed an Executive Order to protect America’s forests, harness 

the power of nature in the fight against climate change, and initiate the 

first National Nature Assessment to evaluate the state of our lands, waters, 

and wildlife. And with funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law 

and alongside the Department of Agriculture, I have created a nearly $1 

billion Community Wildfire Defense grant so that communities can take 

steps to protect themselves from the devastation of wildfires. 

With the help of critical partners in every sector, we continue to make 

strong progress toward these conservation and climate goals. Together, my 

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act represent the largest investment in climate and conservation ever—accelerating the clean energy economy here at home, protecting communities from climate impacts, 

and creating good-paying jobs that boost our economy. The new National 

Monuments I have designated will protect the soaring peaks of Camp Hale 

in Colorado, the irreplaceable Avi Kwa Ame in Nevada, the magnificent 

Castner Range in Texas, and the sacred sites and lands that surround the 

Grand Canyon. We have conserved the ancient and vast conifers of the 

Tongass National Forest; safeguarded the incomparable Bristol Bay watershed 

in Alaska; and restored protections for Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, 

and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts National Monuments. 

My Administration has protected the Boundary Waters in Minnesota and 

Chaco Canyon in New Mexico, and we are accelerating efforts to restore 

the Great Lakes, the Chesapeake Bay, the Everglades, and the Columbia 

River Basin. At my direction, the Secretary of Commerce has begun exploring 

the designation of approximately 770,000 square miles in the Pacific Ocean, 


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60880 Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 6, 2023 / Presidential Documents 

an area almost three times the size of Texas, as a new national marine 

sanctuary to protect the integrity of our oceans. The Department of the 

Interior has also begun the process of preserving more than 13 million 

acres of lands of significant natural and cultural value in the Western Arctic. 

And I declared the entire United States Arctic Ocean off-limits to new 

oil and gas development. These landscapes and sacred spaces are precious. 

If they are lost, they can never be replaced. 

Though these are great accomplishments, I realize we still have much more 

work to do to protect our wilderness. That is why we are continuing to 

take ambitious steps to accelerate conservation. We are coordinating across 

Federal agencies and encouraging collaboration with non-Federal partners 

to better conserve ecological connectivity and wildlife corridors. We are 

also partnering with Tribal Nations, working together as co-stewards of 

the lands that are most precious to them. 

To harness the tremendous power of the ocean to help in our fight against 

the climate crisis, we published the first-ever United States Ocean Climate 

Action Plan, and the Budget I released earlier this year includes new funding 

to ensure our natural areas are accessible to all Americans. I want to build 

on legislation I signed last year that established Wilderness Act protections 

for more than 182,000 acres of public lands in Nevada, so I look forward 

to continuing to work with the Congress to advance locally led and locally 

supported proposals for protecting our most unique and beautiful lands 

and waters. 

This National Wilderness Month, we renew our commitment to protecting 

our wilderness areas and ensuring that all their splendor is passed down 

from generation to generation of Americans, helping to bridge our past 

and our future. 

NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of the United States 

of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution 

and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim September 2023 

as National Wilderness Month. I encourage all Americans to experience 

our Nation’s outdoor heritage, to recreate responsibly and leave no trace, 

to celebrate the value of preserving an enduring wilderness, and to strengthen 

our commitment to protecting these vital lands and waters now and for 

future generations. 


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Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 171 / Wednesday, September 6, 2023 / Presidential Documents 60881 

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this thirty-first day 

of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-three, and of 

the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and 

forty-eighth. 

[FR Doc. 2023–19346 

Filed 9–5–23; 8:45 am] 

Billing code 3395–F3–P 


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