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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A Good Decision for the Charles C. Deam Wilderness
Wilderness Watch helped support a good Forest Service (FS) decision dealing with road access to old cemeteries in the 12,472-acre Charles C. Deam Wilderness in Indiana…Under a 1999 policy, the FS not only allowed public access, but allowed public motor vehicle access on old former roads. Over time, interest in accessing these cemeteries has decreased to only…
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Remove Pemigewasset Wilderness Bridge
In a good decision for Wilderness, the Forest Service (FS) has removed an unsafe log bridge over the East Branch of the Pemigewasset River in the Pemigewasset Wilderness in New Hampshire. In keeping with the spirit of the Wilderness Act, the FS stated that visitors must “meet nature on its terms.” The 46,000-acre Pemigewasset, known…
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A Wilderness Win for the North Fork John Day Wilderness
Following an objection by Wilderness Watch, the Wallowa-Whitman National Forest withdrew a draft decision on a proposal to conduct a “prescribed fire” on up to 9,557 acres of the North Fork John Day Wilderness. Wilderness Watch, with Blue Mountains Biodiversity Project, led a formal administrative objection to the Ten Cent Community Fire Protection Project Final…
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Victory for River of No Return Wilderness and Its Wildlife
In a major victory for Wilderness and wildlife, on March 9, 2020, federal Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled in January 2017 that the Forest Service’s approval of Idaho Fish and Game’s helicopter-assisted elk-collaring project in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (FC-RONRW) was unlawful, that Idaho Fish and Game illegally collared four wolves, and…
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BLM drops Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness juniper project
In 2016, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) withdrew its misguided plan to cut junipers across more than 600,000 acres of the Owyhee Canyonlands in Idaho. Wilderness Watch has opposed this drastic tree-clearing project which originally called for cutting trees across 47,000 acres of Wilderness…
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Kootznoowoo Wilderness Spared an Airport
In a great victory for the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), with the support and urging of Wilderness Watch and our supporters around the country, decided in 2016 to site the Angoon Airport outside the boundaries of the Kootznoowoo Wilderness in southeast Alaska. the nearly million-acre Wilderness on Admiralty Island is home to…
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Victory for Owyhee Wildernesses in Idaho!
Wilderness Watch, joined by Western Watersheds Project, won a significant victory in 2016 for the six Wildernesses in the Owyhee region in Idaho. The victory came in our settlement of an appeal of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s) Owyhee Canyonlands Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Management Plan. Our appeal challenged decisions approving commercial…
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Military Drops Plans to Land Helicopters in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
In April 2016, the U.S. Army announced its decision to drop its plan to land helicopters on a number of high-altitude sites on the east side of the Cascades in Washington as part of its military combat training exercises. One site would have been within the Alpine Lakes Wilderness. Wilderness Watch submitted scoping comments on…
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A Better Plan for Trail Work in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness
The Forest Service (FS) has made a good decision for the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington due to pressure from Wilderness Watch and others. The agency’s original Talapus Lake trail reconstruction project included using helicopters to ferry several dozen loads of materials and using motorized rock drills to reroute the three-mile trail to Talapus Lake….
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WW Stops Commercial Logging in Red Rock Lakes Wilderness
In August 2015, Wilderness Watch convinced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to cancel plans for a commercial logging operation in the Red Rock Lakes Wilderness in Montana. The project had been planned as part of a larger fuels reduction effort at the Red Rock Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, located in the Centennial Valley…
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Los Vidrios—The illegal road
In 2015, a local Wilderness Watch member, Fred Goodsell, sounded the alarm that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had designated an illegal vehicle route as an “administrative road” through the Cabeza-Prieta Wilderness in southwest Arizona. The route, known as Los Vidrios, was reportedly created for and used as a smuggling route for many…
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Wolf killing plan in Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness stopped for now
Due to legal pressure applied by Wilderness Watch and other conservation groups, the State of Idaho has abandoned its plans for contract killing of wolves this winter in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (FC-RONR) in Idaho. Read more…
Photo: Cumberland Island Wilderness, Georgia by Jessica Howell-Edwards