A National Scenic Area in the United States is a federally designated area of outstanding natural and scenic value that receives a level of protection that is less stringent than
wilderness designation. Scenic areas are typically occupied or used in some manner by people and either cannot be considered for wilderness designation, or are seen as suitable for a wider range of uses than those permitted under wilderness designation.
The first National Scenic Area in the United States was
Mono Basin National Scenic Area
The Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area is a protected area in Eastern California that surrounds Mono Lake and the northern half of the Mono Craters volcanic field. It is administered by the Inyo National Forest as a unit of the National Fore ...
in 1984,
followed by the much larger and more ambitious
Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region in ...
in 1986. The Columbia River Gorge was in a region of outstanding natural beauty that was already heavily used by people. The designation of the Columbia Gorge was controversial, as it imposed a significant amount of federal control on public and private lands that had previously not been significantly regulated.
Subsequent scenic area designations have been significantly less far-reaching, typically involving existing federal lands.
List of national scenic areas
Proposed National Scenic Areas
Several proposals have been advanced for additional National Scenic Areas:
* Big Sur Coast National Scenic Area, California, 1980
* Big Schloss National Scenic Area, Virginia and West Virginia, 2009
* Kelley Mountain National Scenic Area, Virginia, 2009
* Shenandoah Mountain National Scenic Area, Virginia, 2009
* Sedona-Red Rocks National Scenic Area, Arizona, legislation introduced in 2010 failed.
* Grandfather National Scenic Area, North Carolina, 2011
* Black Mountain Scenic Area, California, 2019
* Condor Ridge Scenic Area, California, 2019
Former National Scenic Areas
* East Mojave National Scenic Area, designated
Mojave National Preserve
Mojave National Preserve is a United States National Preserve located in the Mojave Desert of San Bernardino County, California, USA, between Interstate 15 and Interstate 40. The preserve was established October 31, 1994, with the passage of ...
in 1994
See also
*
Protected areas of the United States
The protected areas of the United States are managed by an array of different federal, state, tribal and local level authorities and receive widely varying levels of protection. Some areas are managed as wilderness, while others are operated wi ...
References
{{US Protected Areas
Protected areas of the United States