Abstract
Wilderness has been conceptualized as an ideology and simulacrum, and wilderness refers to specific expectations of the landscape it is attributed to including ideas of land untouched by humans. In the USA and other countries, parks are often synonymous with wild lands and wilderness. The perception of parks as wilderness increasingly comes into conflict with efforts to perform extractive industry on these lands such as hydraulic fracturing or fracking. Using a case study of fracking in Pennsylvania and how the industry was banned from expansion within State Parks and State Forests, we argue that parks are symbols of wilderness and that industrial activity within parks damages the perception of these spaces as protected land. Wilderness as an ideology and simulacrum can be a powerful tool for aiding in protection of wild spaces such as those within park boundaries and bolsters support for moving these lands primarily to being for tourism and recreation.
•Wilderness ideology and simulacrum are both necessary to be powerful tools for preservation.•Identity and purpose of public lands in Pennsylvania is linked to tourism and perception of these lands as wilderness.•Unmasking the wilderness simulacrum harms the purpose of park lands and makes justification of protection difficult.