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.
-
Mining Exploration Halted in Famed River of No Return Wilderness
Wilderness Watch and several other conservation groups have scored a major victory for the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness in Idaho! On August 2, 2016, a federal judge in Idaho issued an order declaring that the U.S. Forest Service’s…
-
Utah Public Lands Initiative Guts Wilderness Protections
In August 2016, Wilderness Watch released a detailed analysis of the Wilderness provisions found in the “Utah Public Lands Initiative Act” (H.R. 5780), which was introduced in Congress on July 14, 2016 by Rep Rob Bishop (R-UT) and Rep…
-
Congress Allows Unethical Killing in Wildlife Refuges in Alaska
Trump signed a law in early April 2017 to again allow the following practices to kill wildlife in national wildlife refuges in Alaska: • Same day airborne hunting of bears, wolves, and wolverines; • Use of traps, snares, and…
-
Congress Takes Aim at the Wilderness Act
Smith GulchOn April 21, 2018, the Senate Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining heard S. 1777, “a bill to amend the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.” The House companion bill is HR 2312. This bill would allow further…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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)…
-
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.…
-
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…
-
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…
Photo: Desolation Wilderness, Utah by Bob Wick/BLM