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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Los Vidrios—The illegal road
In 2015, a local Wilderness Watch member, Fred Goodsell, sounded the alarm that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) had designated an illegal vehicle route as an “administrative road” through the Cabeza-Prieta Wilderness in southwest Arizona. The route,…
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Another Building Boom in the Olympics
One would be hard-pressed to identify too many things more clearly antithetical to Wilderness than man-made buildings. As defined by the Wilderness Act, “[a] wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape,…
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WW Challenges Unprecedented Helicopter Invasion to Capture and Collar Elk in the River of No Return Wilderness
On January 7, 2016, Wilderness Watch, joined by Friends of the Clearwater and Western Watersheds Project, filed a complaint in federal court to stop the Idaho Dept. of Fish and Game from conducting a major helicopter-supported elk capturing and…
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Wolf killing plan in Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness stopped for now
Due to legal pressure applied by Wilderness Watch and other conservation groups, the State of Idaho has abandoned its plans for contract killing of wolves this winter in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness (FC-RONR) in Idaho. Read…
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Wilderness Watch Sues for Use Monitoring Info in Emigrant Wilderness
Wilderness Watch’s Central Sierra Chapter has long been concerned with the Forest Service’s (FS) unwillingness to take action to protect the Emigrant Wilderness in the High Sierra from overuse and abuse, to meet the standards in its forest plan,…
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WW Concerned about Proposed Structures and Installations in Mt. Hood Wilderness
Wilderness Watch is gravely concerned about a U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) proposal to install permanent structures and installations in the Mt. Hood Wilderness in Oregon. The USGS is proposing to build four new permanent volcano monitoring stations on the…
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Pres. Obama recommends full protection for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
In a bold move that will protect nearly all of the magnificent Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, The Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is recommending full wilderness protection for more than 12 million Refuge acres, including the Coastal…
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Helicopters, motor boats, structures, and more threaten Arctic Wilderness
On April 6, 2015, Wilderness Watch was notified by the Manager of the Arctic Refuge of a Draft Environmental Assessment (DEA) concerning an intrusive science project proposed for the Arctic Refuge Wilderness in the vicinity of Lake Peters. Read…
Photo: Desolation Wilderness, Utah by Bob Wick/BLM