Wild Issues
For over 35 years, Wilderness Watch has been the leading national organization whose sole focus is the preservation and proper stewardship of lands and rivers included in the National Wilderness Preservation System. Learn more about current Wilderness issues we’re working on.
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Wilderness Community Unites to Keep Bike Ban in Wilderness
The wilderness community has united to head off efforts by some mountain bikers to open Wilderness to their machines. In a June 2018 letter, 150 organizations from across the country urged Congress to oppose attempts to amend and weaken…
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Time to Close Airstrips in River of No Return Wilderness
Wilderness Watch and other groups have sent the Chief of the Forest Service a letter urging him to permanently close four backcountry airstrips located in the Big Creek drainage within the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho.…
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Let the Pine Valley Mountain Wilderness Be
Wilderness Watch recently urged the Forest Service to let the Pine Valley Wilderness “be” rather than conduct its proposed significant new manipulation project on the Dixie National Forest in southern Utah. The Forest Service is planning the “Grass Valley…
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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…
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Wilderness Watch Opposes Human Meddling in Boundary Waters
Wilderness Watch filed a formal Objection against human meddling inside the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW). In the Hi Lo Project, the Forest Service proposes to intentionally ignite 1,314 acres of forest inside the BWCAW.
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Commercial Rocket Launches Threaten Cumberland Island Wilderness
Wilderness Watch is concerned over a proposal to launch commercial rockets over the Cumberland Island Wilderness off the coast of southern Georgia. Camden County’s commercial space launch site would be less than five miles from Cumberland Island National Seashore.…
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We Vote for Nature’s Way
The National Park Service is moving ahead with its ill-advised plan for heavy-handed manipulation of the Isle Royale Wilderness in Michigan. The Park Service has captured wolves from other places in the region, and released them on Isle Royale…
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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…
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World’s First Wilderness Area Under Attack
The U.S. Air Force is proposing up to 10,000 F-16 fighter jet “sorties” a year over the Gila and Aldo Leopold Wildernesses and Gila National Forest in southern New Mexico. The area’s wild character would no doubt be harmed…
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WW Supports Federal Purchase of State Lands in the Boundary Waters
Wilderness Watch is urging the Forest Service to support the federal purchase of 86,000 acres of Minnesota School Trust lands in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (BWCAW) rather than move forward with an ill-conceived plan to shrink the…
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National Monument “Review” Threatens Wilderness
On April 26, 2017 President Trump issued an Executive Order directing the U.S. Department of the Interior to review all national monuments larger than 100,000 acres and established since 1996—27 monuments in all. This “review” was nothing less than an all out…
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Better Ways to Cross a River
Wilderness Watch had urged the Forest Service to abandon its plan to re-construct the large Hawks Rest bridge over the Yellowstone River in the Teton Wilderness in Wyoming, using helicopters and other motorized equipment.The Teton Wilderness lies within the…
Photo: Desolation Wilderness, Utah by Bob Wick/BLM