The blog of Wilderness Watch
Franz
Jul 19, 2023

New Isle Royale wolves ironically diminish island’s wildness

By Kevin Proescholdt

 
A recent AP story about a new report on the “recovery” of wolves at Isle Royale National Park in Lake Superior quoted me as saying, “We have felt and still believe that the National Park Service should not have intervened and set up this artificial population of wolves.” Why this stick-in-the-mud quote from an organization that defends wolves and Wilderness across the country in an otherwise positive story about wolves thriving on Isle Royale?

 

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Franz
Jul 12, 2023

The “Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act” is still an imminent threat to Wilderness

By Dana Johnson

 
I recently wrote an op-ed calling the proposed “Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act” (PARC Act) an imminent threat to Wilderness. In response, members of the Access Fund, the group behind the bill, have been contacting individual publishers, pressuring them to pull the piece. They’ve (wrongly) called it misleading and “fake news,” and some have even resorted to publicly attacking the character of individual editors.

 

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Franz
Jun 30, 2023

Wilderness Watch sues Forest Service for failure to control motorized towboats in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness

By Kevin Proescholdt

 
Wilderness Watch has recently sued the U.S. Forest Service in federal district court over the agency’s decades of failures to control commercial motorized towboats in the fabled Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) in Minnesota as required. We are now awaiting the judge’s ruling on our motion for a preliminary injunction.

 

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Franz
Jun 21, 2023

The “Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act” is an imminent threat to Wilderness

By Dana Johnson

 
There are relentless pressures on the natural world at this moment, and right now, Congress has its attention on a bill that would compound those pressures in our most protected places. The boldly named “Protecting America’s Rock Climbing Act” will allow climbers to drill permanent metal anchors into Wilderness mountainsides and cliffs, leaving visual evidence of human development and undoubtedly drawing more climbers to sensitive and remote locations.

 

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Franz
Oct 18, 2022

A Walk in the Winds

By Harriet Greene

 

My daughter and I drove south towards the turnoff, then seventeen miles on gravel to the trailhead. A pack trip was leaving and the wrangler, spitting a wad of tobacco, told us about “one of the best campsites” where we were headed. The trail climbed through a grove of aspens, stayed high on a sage-covered slope above Upper New Fork Lake, and we crossed into the Bridger Wilderness at 3.4 miles. Ah-h-h!

 

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Dana blog
Jun 07, 2022

Utah Wilderness: Keep it Wild!

By Howie Wolke

 

The Colorado Plateau of eastern and southern Utah is a unique landscape of colorful sedimentary rocks and mesas dissected by spectacular canyons of the Green and Colorado River systems. And, despite a long history of ranching, mining and the associated dirt road network fragmenting the outback, much of this spectacular realm remains roadless and wild.

 

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Franz
Dec 16, 2021

What is Wilderness Without its Wolves?

By Franz Camenzind

 

For millennia, wolves have occupied nearly all the lands now designated as Wilderness in the western US, with the exception of coastal California. Yet today, fewer than two score of the approximately 540 Wildernesses west of the 100th meridian (not including Alaska’s 48) can claim some number of wolves as residents and only a dozen or so harbor wolves in numbers sufficient to be considered sustainable—in either the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Central Idaho Wildlands or Montana’s Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem...

 

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Dana blog
Oct 06, 2021

We Need Big Holistic Wilderness

By Howie Wolke

 

Back in the 1980’s, Dave Foreman and I compiled The Big Outside, A Descriptive Inventory of the Remaining Big Wilderness Areas of the United States (Harmony Books, 1989). The primary purpose was to accurately depict the true extent of each large roadless area in the contiguous 48 states, defining “large” as 100,000 acres or more in the West, with a 50,000 acre minimum for the East. We defined roadless areas as physical entities delineated by the location of roads and other intrusions that actually interrupt the flow of wildness.

 

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Dana blog
Sep 02, 2021

Wilderness for its own sake

By Roy (Monte) High

 

Over the years I’ve heard numerous people disparage the designation of wilderness areas by speaking on behalf of people with disabilities. They say that wilderness areas are unfair to the disabled because there are no roads allowed to take them there. I’ve heard it said that the designation of wilderness areas is like a slap to the face of the disabled population. As a person with a disability, I wholeheartedly disagree.

 

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Jun 29, 2021

Ending La Luz run safeguards wilderness

By Kevin Proescholdt
 
The recent decision by Forest Service District Ranger Crystal Powell to deny the permit to run the La Luz Trail Run race through the Sandia Mountain Wilderness may be understandably unpopular with some runners and race organizers (“La Luz race hits end of trail as Forest Service denies permit,” Albuquerque Journal, May 15). But this decision is the proper one to protect the wilderness character of this iconic area.

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Dana web
May 03, 2021

Wilderness and the Value of Doing Nothing

By Dana Johnson

 

Along the high-elevation, wind-swept ridges of the West, a long-lived, gnarly-branched pine is in trouble. A species of stone pine known for its high stress tolerance and adaptability, whitebark pine is slow-growing and can live between 500–1,000 years. Lacking wings for wind-dispersal, its calorie-dense seeds are spread primarily by Clark’s Nutcracker, a member of the crow family with a specialized bill for extracting large seeds from pinecones and a pouch under its tongue for stashing and carrying seeds long distance. Those seeds are a prized food source for a range of species, including the imperiled grizzly bear. 

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Mar 29, 2021

Wilderness: Is it all about us?

By George Nickas

 
A while back I received an email from the founders of a recently established organization that was created out of a concern for the “wilderness visitor.” They wrote to challenge Wilderness Watch’s long-time insistence that the fundamental mandate in the Wilderness Act requires managers to—first and foremost—protect each area’s wilderness character. They claim WW’s position misinterprets the law, has incorrectly shaped the views of much of the conservation community and, to the degree we influence the federal agencies, caused them to protect Wilderness from the people.

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Dana blog
Jan 25, 2021

Thirty by Thirty and Half Earth: Promises and Pitfalls

By Howie Wolke

 

In 2016, legendary ecologist Edward O. Wilson published Half Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life. In this remarkable book, Wilson documents the ongoing anthropogenic planet-wide biological meltdown, the greatest extinction event since a meteor crashed into the Gulf of Mexico, about 60 million years ago. As a remedy, Wilson argues for protecting half of the Earth’s terrestrial acreage as inviolate nature reserves.

 

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Dana web
Apr 14, 2020

A Legal Win for the River of No Return Wilderness and a Call to Protect Wolves and Wilderness

By Dana Johnson

 

You might recall that in January 2016, the U.S. Forest Service authorized Idaho Department of Fish and Game (IDFG) to make 120 helicopter landings in the River of No Return Wilderness to place radio telemetry collars on 60 elk, despite the Wilderness Act’s clear prohibition on motorized intrusions and its directive to preserve an untrammeled Wilderness. To our knowledge, this was the most extensive helicopter intrusion in Wilderness that has ever been authorized. 

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A Legal Win for the River of No Return Wilderness and a Call to Protect Wolves

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What's all the buzz in the Boundary Waters?

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Let's Protect our Nation's Largest Wilderness Study Area

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BLM Plan Would Degrade the Paria Canyon-Vermillion Cliffs Wilderness

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The Not So Good Public Lands Omnibus Bill

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The Outlook for Wilderness in Congress

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What’s Wrong with Monitoring Inactive Volcanoes in Wilderness?

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Why Wilderness? It's Irreplaceable

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Wilderness Ethics as an Antidote to Climate Change Hubris

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Looking for a Good Alternative for North Cascades Grizzly Recovery

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Why Chainsaws Matter


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Hovercraft Ruling Deals a Major Blow to Land Conservation in Alaska

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Wilderness Giant Stewart “Brandy” Brandborg Moves on at 93

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Isle Royale Wolves: I Vote for Nature's Way

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Restraint the Key to Keeping Wilderness Wild

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Giantforte Joins Stealth Attack on Wilderness in Montana

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Bigger is Better


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National Monuments "Review" Threatens Wilderness Too

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Mount Washington Wilderness Protected from Ecological Meddling

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There was no secret deal for mining near the Boundary Waters

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Time to Change how we Administer Wilderness

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Wolke on Wheels

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Wilderness Intended as Refuge from Bikes

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Sigurd Olson and the Establishment of Voyageurs

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Wilderness: The Next 50 Years?

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Wilderness in the Eternity of the Future

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50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act

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Wilderness More Important than Ever

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Can We Still Keep Wilderness Wild?

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Paddling would mar wild landscapes

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A Winter Visit to Cumberland Island Wilderness

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So-Called Conservation Groups Betray Wilderness

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The evolution of Monte Dolack's Commemorative Wilderness Poster

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Wilderness Advocate Polly Dyer Recognized with Honorary Doctorate

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Cheering 50th Anniversary of Wilderness Act

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Of Wolves and Wilderness


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Wolves and Isle Royale: Manipulated Zoo or Wild Wilderness?

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A Brief History of Quid Pro Quo Wilderness

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Seeing What All the Dam Fuss Is About

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Wilderness: What and Why


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State Agency Game Farming Is Not Compatible...

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Snow Kiting In Wilderness

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The Most Serious Attack on America's Wilderness

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The Surgeon’s Strike Against the Wilderness Act

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Bill Worf, Wilderness Champion, Has Died at 85



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Wilderness: A Place to Unplug

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At Glacier National Park, History Trumps Wilderness

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Wilderness: A Plan for Change

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Your vote will help gain a stronger stewardship policy for wildlife refuge Wilderness

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Wilderness and Overpopulation

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The Need for Wilderness Litigation

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Perseverance Pays Off


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Building New History in Wilderness

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Cleaning up the Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act

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Not Open for Business


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Contact Us

Wilderness Watch
P.O. Box 9175
Missoula, MT 59807
P: 406-542-2048
E: wild@wildernesswatch.org

Minneapolis, MN Office
2833 43rd Avenue South
Minneapolis, MN 55406

P: 612-201-9266

Moscow, ID Office
P.O. Box 9765
Moscow, ID 83843

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