Wilderness is a cluster concept.
Posted by: g2d
on Sep-05-12 3:53 PM (EST)
Various things go into the definition, degree of roadlessness, degree of absence of human population, degree of wild (versus cut or farmed) vegetation, lack of buildings, lack of power lines, etc. etc.
That's how people actually use the word wilderness. One person's "personal" definition will vary.
If just one criterion is out of compliance a bit, that may not cause people to stop calling it "wilderness."
The BWCA meets most people's definition of wilderness. "BWCA and Beyond" is a pretty damn good way of indicating what kind of "wilderness" we're talking about.
I can keep pointing this out as long as you choose to imply that nearly the whole land mass of the planet really isn't wilderness.