Historically, the preservation of wilderness in national parks and U.S. Forest Service wilderness areas has been much more extensive in western Washington than western Oregon despite the similarities of the two areas. The central purpose of this article is to assess whether the higher level of economic dependency on timber in Oregon relative to Washington has played a role in the preservation of wilderness. Recent congressional decisions on wilderness preservation have followed an extensive review of roadless areas by the U.S. Forest Service and recommendations for allocation of such areas to wilderness. This process provides an opportunity to investigate the determinants of wilderness selection and compare recommendations by the Forest Service with final wilderness preservation decisions by Congress. A central conclusion of this research is that Congress allocated fewer acres to wilderness in western Oregon than western Washington because Oregon has a more highly timber dependent economy. In addition, Congress was more sensitive than the Forest Service to timber dependency differences between the two states in its wilderness selection process as well as to the interests of wilderness advocates. The total amount of roadless area acreage allocated to wilderness by Congress was greater than the amount recommended by the Forest Service.
