Skip to Content

Wild Issues

Caribou by Alexis Bonogofsky

Protect the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain from oil and gas development

In February 2026, the Trump administration opened a 30-day “Call for Nominations and Comments for the 2026 Coastal Plain Oil and Gas Lease Sale” period during which oil and gas companies were invited to indicate interest in bidding on public lands inside the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska—one of the wildest, most pristine places on Earth.

Read the Full Article

Middle Fork of the Flathead River, Montana by Gavin Rudy/USFS

Protect Wilderness in the Flathead Wild and Scenic River corridor

Roughly 87 miles of the 219-mile Flathead Wild and Scenic River System runs through the gorges and valleys of one of America’s most celebrated Wilderness areas—the 1.6 million-acre Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex in Montana. The “Bob,” as it’s known, consists of the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, and Great Bear Wildernesses. All of its native wildlife—including iconic native species like grizzlies and wolves—still live here.

Read the Full Article

Lusk Creek Wilderness canopy by John Wallace

Forest Service could torch 30,000 acres of Wilderness on the Shawnee

Wilderness Watch is opposing a U.S. Forest Service proposal to burn almost 30,000 acres of Wilderness on the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois under the guise of “fuels reduction” and “ecological restoration.” This type of sweeping manipulation is precisely what the Wilderness Act’s “untrammeled” mandate is meant to avoid—humans imposing their will on Wilderness to try to create managers’ desired conditions rather than allowing nature to shape the wild.

Read the Full Article

Cumberland Island Wilderness by NPS

Cumberland Island deserves better

Cumberland Island National Seashore and Wilderness in southern Georgia—with its massive live oak maritime forests, saltwater marshes, and spectacular white sand beach is the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard and one of the gems of America’s National Park system. The National Park Service (NPS), though, is looking to maximize visitor numbers and recreation at the expense of the Cumberland Island Wilderness and its wild inhabitants.

Read the Full Article

Great Bear Wilderness by Troy Smith

Great Bear Wilderness threatened by logging on its boundaries

Wilderness Watch is concerned about the Forest Service’s (FS) Granite Moccasin Project, a proposal to log 4,689 acres across the Flathead National Forest in northwest Montana, including 175 acres next to the Great Bear Wilderness. The FS is relying on an “Emergency Action Determination” to sidestep National Environmental Policy Act requirements—including the public comment period.

Read the Full Article

Wolverine by Howie Wolke

Threatened wolverines need critical habitat designated

No critter exemplifies our nation’s wilderness heritage more than the tenacious and beautiful wolverine. Wolverines are among the most wilderness-dependent mammals in the lower 48 states, persisting only in remote, high-elevation landscapes with deep snow and minimal human disturbance. Many of these strongholds overlap with designated Wilderness across the western United States—where natural processes still dominate.

Read the Full Article

Pemigewasset Wilderness by Zack Porter, Standing Trees

Protect trailless areas on the White Mountain National Forest

Wilderness Watch is concerned about the Forest Service’s (FS) proposal to amend its Forest Plan in regards to wilderness trail management on the White Mountain National Forest (WMNF) in New Hampshire and Maine. The agency is trying to do the right thing by addressing trail issues in Wilderness, but instead should consider trails individually.

Read the Full Article

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness by Kristine Sowl/USFWS

Wilderness Watch sues Interior for illegal land swap threatening Izembek

On November 12, 2025, Wilderness Watch and our allies sued the Interior Department and King Cove Corporation in U.S. District Court for signing a land exchange agreement with the sole purpose of facilitating the construction of a 13-mile road through the protected tundra and wetlands of the world-renowned Izembek Wilderness and National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

Read the Full Article

Basin and Range National Monument by Bob Wick, BLM

Protect the “unconfined” Worthington Mountain Wilderness

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering permitting a cattleranching company to install more than a mile of permanent fencing in the Worthington Mountain Wilderness in Nevada, despite the Wilderness Act’s prohibition on permanent structures that fail to meet the minimum requirements for administrating Wilderness.

Read the Full Article