A monarch butterfly in DC.

Local Maya schoolchildren being brought to the Cockscomb Jaguar Preserve in Belize to be taught about jaguars and other wildlife.

Eastern rat snakes have a bad reputation. Photo by D. Gordon E.

Editor’s note: Today marks the fiftieth anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Act. To commemorate the anniversary, we asked a small group of Island Press authors to reflect on the influence of this law to date and how its role may or should...