Accomplishments
Since our inception in 1989, Wilderness Watch has played an important role in assuring that management agencies abide by the Wilderness Act and other laws that protect the integrity of our wilderness heritage. Here’s a quick look at a few of our accomplishments:
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Georgia Governor rejects commercial spaceport threatening Cumberland Island Wilderness
A proposed commercial space launch site that would have been located less than five miles from the Cumberland Island National Seashore and Wilderness in southern Georgia has been scrapped by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp. On May 13, 2024, Gov. Kemp signed a law that dissolves the Camden County Spaceport Authority, putting an end to the…
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Red Rock Lakes Wilderness pipeline project withdrawn
On September 15, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a controversial water-diversion pipeline project in the Red Rock Lakes Wilderness in southwestern Montana following a lawsuit by Wilderness Watch, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Gallatin Wildlife Association, and Yellowstone to Uintas Connection.
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Good News for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
Wilderness Watch supported two recent moves by the Biden administration to stop a massive underground and open-pit copper-nickel sulfide-ore mine—some of the most toxic mining on the planet—in the watershed of the fabled Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in northeastern Minnesota. In January 2022, the administration canceled two mining leases for the proposed Twin…
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Wildernesses spared from burn plan
Due to pressure from Wilderness Watch and Western Watersheds Project, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to scrap its misguided plan to torch the sagebrush habitat and native pinyon-juniper forests of the remote Highland Ridge and White Rock Range Wildernesses in eastern Nevada to create more food for cows.
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Water won’t run uphill
Due to pressure from Wilderness Watch, Western Watersheds Project, and other groups, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to scrap a water development project in the Paiute Wilderness in northwest Arizona. This project, whose purpose was to facilitate cattle grazing, would have added significant structures in the Paiute Wilderness and would have disrupted a…
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You made a difference for Wilderness in CA
Thanks to comments from our members and supporters, the Forest Service (FS) has issued a draft Environmental Assessment that excludes Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas, recommended Wilderness, and roadless areas from its Region 5 Post Disturbance Hazardous Tree Management Project. This project could have included more than a dozen Wildernesses within the sprawling project area across 10 National Forests…
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Good news for brown bears in the Kenai Refuge
On November 13, 2020, a federal court ruled in favor of protecting brown bears in the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) and Wilderness in Alaska. The Kenai National Wildlife Refuge includes approximately 2 million acres of important wildlife habitat and more than 1.3 million acres of Wilderness.
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Victory for Owyhee Canyonlands!
On January 13, 2022, an administrative law judge blocked a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) decision that would have allowed for up to triple the amount of cattle grazing on public lands in part of the wild and remote Owyhee Canyonlands region of southwestern Idaho, including in Wilderness. Wilderness Watch and Western Watersheds Project challenged BLM’s…
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Scapegoat Wilderness poisoning stopped
On July 22, 2021, Wilderness Watch and allies filed suit in the U.S. District Court for Montana asking for a preliminary injunction and/or temporary restraining order to halt the State of Montana’s North Fork Blackfoot Westslope Cutthroat Trout Project—a massive stream poisoning and fish stocking project in the Scapegoat Wilderness
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Victory: Air Force drops Gila overflights plan!
Due to public pressure, the U.S. Air Force in January 2021 dropped its proposal for up to 10,000 F-16 fighter jet “sorties” a year over America’s (and the world’s) first Wilderness—the Gila—and seven other Wildernesses in southern New Mexico—the Aldo Leopold, Apache Kid, Withington, Bosque del Apache, Sierra de las Uvas, Broad Canyon, and Robledo Wildernesses.…
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Helicopter Net-Gun Capture Stopped in Wasatch Wildernesses
The Utah Division of Wildlife Resources (UDWR) has dropped its proposal to use helicopters to net-gun capture and collar mountain goats and bighorn sheep in the Mt. Timpanogos, Lone Peak, and Twin Peak Wildernesses in the Wasatch Mountains. Wilderness Watch and other groups had filed an objection to the proposal, which was antithetical to Wilderness in numerous ways.…
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WW Stops Wilderness “Chainsaw Massacre” in Colorado
On June 4, Wilderness Watch and two co-plaintiff organizations filed a motion for preliminary injunction against the US Forest Service for secretly approving an unprecedented plan to allow chainsaws for clearing trails throughout the Weminuche and South San Juan Wildernesses in Colorado. A week later, we learned that the Forest Service had withdrawn its decision.
Photo: Cumberland Island Wilderness, Georgia by Jessica Howell-Edwards