On February 2, 2024, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it would not re-list gray wolves in the northern Rockies under the Endangered Species Act, finding them “not warranted” for federal protection.
Wilderness and wildlife are under relentless pressures at this moment in history, including from exploding demand for outdoor recreation. Unfortunately, right now some members of Congress are pushing a bill to allow permanent “fixed anchor” rock climbing in America’s National Wilderness Preservation System. The “Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act” (H.R. 1380) might seem innocuous, but it has big consequences. It will weaken the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act and increase recreation pressures in our most protected places.
Wilderness Watch is concerned with a Forest Service proposal to renew existing outfitter permits in the Bob Marshall, Scapegoat, and Great Bear Wildernesses in Northwestern Montana—which collectively comprise the Bob Marshall Wilderness Complex—without disclosing which permits, their locations, or any associated information. This makes it impossible to provide meaningful public input.
Wilderness Watch started the new year by filing an amicus brief at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on January 2, 2024 to rein in Wildlife Services’ wanton killing of native wildlife in Nevada, including the potential for killing wildlife in Wilderness.
In Fall 2023, the Biden administration released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the proposed 211-mile Ambler Road through Alaska’s Brooks Range and some of the wildest country on the continent. The road would facilitate huge mining operations that would benefit a private Canadian company at the expense of Wilderness and wildlife.
In late 2023, the Forest Service invited public input on the management of commercial, motorized towboat operations within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, as it considers amending the Forest Plan to address this issue. This public comment opportunity was an attempt by the agency to show it’s being responsive to its obligations to protect the Boundary Waters from excessive commercial motorboat use, so we urged our members and supporters to weigh in.
The U.S. Forest Service has announced a massive burning project for the Sequoia and Sierra National Forests in California that covers 2.4 million acres—including all Wildernesses on these two national forests—over 842,000 acres total. some of America’s most loved Wilderness areas are at stake, including the Ansel Adams, Dinkey Lakes, John Muir, Kaiser, Kiavah, Monarch, South Sierra, Dome Land, Jennie Lakes, and Golden Trout Wildernesses.
In September 2023, we celebrated the news that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland had canceled the last remaining Trump-era oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which were held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA). With the cancellation of those leases, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) also issued a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for public comment, as required by the so-called Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017.
The National Park Service (NPS) has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for a new Bison Management Plan at Yellowstone National Park to replace a hopelessly outdated and harmful plan. Wilderness Watch is urging that the plan be extensively strengthened.
