Skip to Content
Desolation Canyon Wilderness by Bob Wick/BLM

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.

  • Yukon Charley River Preserve NPS

    Hovercraft Ruling a Blow to Land Conservation in Alaska

    In a major blow to conservation efforts in Alaska, including efforts to protect over 56 million acres of Wilderness in the state, in late March the U.S. Supreme Court held that John Sturgeon, a moose hunter, can “rev up…

  • Pusch Ridge Wilderness

    Forest Service Proposes Logging and Burning Wildernesses in Arizona

    Wilderness Watch has told the Forest Service (FS) it needs to drop its plan to significantly manipulate or trammel the Pusch Ridge and Rincon Mountain Wildernesses outside of Tucson, Arizona as part of its Catalina-Rincon Firescape Project. The Forest…

  • Kalmiopsis Wilderness Leon Werdinger

    Forest Service Proposing to Protect the Kalmiopsis Wilderness from Mining

    The Forest Service (FS) has released an Environmental Assessment (EA) that would withdraw mineral rights on about 101,000 acres of national forest and Bureau of Land Management-administered land near the Kalmiopsis Wilderness in Oregon. The rugged, nearly 180,000-acre Kalmiopsis…

  • Pasayten Wilderness Washington

    Help protect the wild Pasayten and Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wildernesses!

    The Pasayten and Lake Chelan-Sawtooth Wildernesses east of the Cascade crest in Washington State are some of the wildest country in the lower 48 states, providing habitat for rare lynx, spotted owls, grizzlies, and wolves. Despite evidence of damage…

  • Bruneau Jarbidge Rivers Wilderness Bob Wick

    Victory for Owyhee Wildernesses in Idaho!

    Wilderness Watch, joined by Western Watersheds Project, won a significant victory in 2016 for the six Wildernesses in the Owyhee region in Idaho. The victory came in our settlement of an appeal of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM’s)…

  • Helicopter

    Military Drops Plans to Land Helicopters in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

    In April 2016, the U.S. Army announced its decision to drop its plan to land helicopters on a number of high-altitude sites on the east side of the Cascades in Washington as part of its military combat training exercises.…

  • Teton Lakes Wilderness Howie Wolke

    The cure is worse than the disease

    Wilderness Watch questioned a proposal to the Forest Service (FS) by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) to use rotenone to kill brook and rainbow trout in the Teton Wilderness in Dime Lake, Dime Creek, Mystery Lake, and…

  • Alpine Lakes Wilderness Walter Siegmund

    A Better Plan for Trail Work in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness

    The Forest Service (FS) has made a good decision for the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington due to pressure from Wilderness Watch and others. The agency’s original Talapus Lake trail reconstruction project included using helicopters to ferry several dozen…

  • Nellie Juan College Fiord Wilderness

    WW Urges Forest Service to Protect Nation’s Largest WSA

    Wilderness Watch has been urging the Forest Service to protect and improve the wilderness character of the largest Wilderness Study Area (WSA) in the country—the nearly million-acre Nellie Juan-College Fiord WSA in Alaska.   The Congressionally-designated Nellie Juan-College Fiord…

  • Lake Chelan Sawtooth Wilderness

    WW Concerned About Sonic Weapons Blasting in Wildernesses

    Wilderness Watch has been concerned about a U.S. Navy plan to blast the Olympic Peninsula with sonic weapons, including within five Wildernesses: Olympic (Olympic National Park), Colonel Bob, Washington Islands, Lake Chelan-Sawtooth, and the Pasayten. The Navy’s Environmental Assessment…

  • Red Rock Lakes Wilderness

    WW Stops Commercial Logging in Red Rock Lakes Wilderness

    In August 2015, Wilderness Watch convinced the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to cancel plans for a commercial logging operation in the Red Rock Lakes Wilderness in Montana. The project had been planned as part of a larger…

  • Denali Wilderness

    WW Urges Park Service to Keep Denali Wild

    In October 2015, Wilderness Watch submitted scoping comments on a proposed trail planning process for Denali National Park & Preserve in Alaska, most of the which is either designated Wilderness or suitable for designation. We disagree with the Park…

Photo: Desolation Wilderness, Utah by Bob Wick/BLM