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Wild Issues

Lizard Head Wilderness by Kyle Alcorn

Reining in overuse in the Lizard Head Wilderness

Earlier this spring, the Forest Service invited Wilderness Watch to a meeting after we submitted comments on the agency’s proposal to rein in overuse at Navajo Lake in the Lizard Head Wilderness in southwestern Colorado. The Wilderness is in the San Juan mountains, with two of the state’s 14,000-foot peaks towering over Navajo Lake.

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Chainsaws in Wilderness

In May, the U.S. Forest Service authorized the use of chainsaws by commercial outfitters and guides for seven months a year (January 1 to August 1) for three years on 542 miles of trail in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness on the Salmon–Challis National Forest in Idaho. The Forest Service made this decision…

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Keg Knoll airstrip in the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness by BLM

Close Keg Knoll airstrip in the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness

Wilderness Watch is pushing back on a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposal to open the Keg Knoll airstrip in the Labyrinth Canyon Wilderness just northwest of Canyonlands National Park in Utah to more backcountry aircraft. We’re opposing the plan’s infrastructure expansion also, which includes parking for ten aircraft, pilot camping, visual markers, and vegetation manipulation.

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Bear and cub

Park Service proposing cruel hunting practices on National Preserves in Alaska

Wilderness Watch is opposing a proposed National Park Service (NPS) rule that allows cruel and grossly unethical hunting practices on national preserves in Alaska, including on over eight million acres of Wilderness. This rule, by essentially turning wildlife management over to the State of Alaska, puts wildlife at risk across 19 million acres of the most iconic wild places left in America, including Gates of the Arctic, Denali, Wrangell-St. Elias, and Katmai National Park and Preserve, a world-renowned gathering spot for brown bears.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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