Return to Key West National Wildlife Refuge
About Us
Updated May 6, 2026
Wilderness Area
Name: Florida Keys Wilderness
Established by Congress in 1975
Acreage: 6,197 acres
Why Wilderness? The Wilderness Act of 1964 created the National Wilderness Preservation System "in order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization does not occupy and modify all areas in the United States, and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition..."
For more information: https://wilderness.net/visit-wilderness/?ID=188