WYO A century and a half ago, Henry David Thoreau went to a quiet place near a Massachusetts pond to consider the value of nature. Since then, the concept of wilderness in America's open spaces has been transformed.
Hikers now ply the farthest reaches of national parks, accompanied by the ring of cell phones.
Helicopter tours whirr over far-off forests, and smog has encroached on stunning landscapes. Within the next month, the Clinton administration plans to address these issues by asking Congress to set aside 5 million acres of national park land as wilderness - places where new development is prohibited. If successful, the move would be perhaps the most significant change in national park land usage for a generation - one that the administration is eager to leave as a legacy. But Congress has repeatedly turned down proposals to give national park land in the Lower 48 states wilderness designation since Lyndon Johnson's presidency 35 years ago. The moon rises over Grand Teton in Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park.