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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Ambler Road Threatens Gates of the Arctic Wilderness
In Fall 2023, the Biden administration released a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the proposed 211-mile Ambler Road through Alaska’s Brooks Range and some of the wildest country on the continent. The road would facilitate huge mining operations…
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Prioritize quiet in the Boundary Waters
In late 2023, the Forest Service invited public input on the management of commercial, motorized towboat operations within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota, as it considers amending the Forest Plan to address this issue. This public comment opportunity…
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842,448 Wilderness acres threatened with burning and cutting
The U.S. Forest Service has announced a massive burning project for the Sequoia and Sierra National Forests in California that covers 2.4 million acres—including all Wildernesses on these two national forests—over 842,000 acres total. some of America’s most loved…
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Wilderness Watch sues to protect Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness from poisoning and helicopters
On November 8, 2023 Wilderness Watch filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), challenging the agency’s unlawful decision to poison more than 45 miles of Buffalo Creek in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness at the behest of Montana Fish…
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Arctic National Wildlife Refuge still threatened
In September 2023, we celebrated the news that Interior Secretary Deb Haaland had canceled the last remaining Trump-era oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which were held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority…
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Let Yellowstone Buffalo Roam
The National Park Service (NPS) has released a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for a new Bison Management Plan at Yellowstone National Park to replace a hopelessly outdated and harmful plan. Wilderness Watch is urging that the plan be…
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WW sues NPS to protect Wilderness in Sequoia and Kings Canyon
Wilderness Watch, Sequoia ForestKeeper, Tule River Conservancy, and the John Muir Project have filed a lawsuit against the National Park Service (NPS), challenging the agency’s unlawful decision to implement extensive and motorized tree cutting, burning, and planting across thousands…
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Keep cattle out of the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness
Wilderness Watch is opposing a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposal to authorize cattle grazing in the 31,792-acre Palmerita Ranch Allotment, which includes 4,200 acres within the Arrastra Mountain Wilderness northwest of Phoenix, Arizona.
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Protect Isle Royale’s solitude and wild character
The National Park Service has issued a Draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Wilderness Stewardship Plan at Isle Royale Wilderness and National Park. The agency is considering a range of actions for managing Wilderness and cultural resources. In addition,…
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Red Rock Lakes Wilderness pipeline project withdrawn
On September 15, 2023, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service withdrew a controversial water-diversion pipeline project in the Red Rock Lakes Wilderness in southwestern Montana following a lawsuit by Wilderness Watch, Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Gallatin Wildlife Association,…
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It’s time to remove domestic sheep in the High Uintas Wilderness
Wilderness Watch is opposing a plan that would continue to permit domestic sheep grazing in critical bighorn sheep habitat in the High Uintas Wilderness in Utah. This nearly half-million acre Wilderness protects Utah’s highest peaks, hundreds of lakes, and…
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Wilderness be undammed
The City of Missoula, Montana is proposing to breach the 15-foot-high earthen dam it owns on McKinley Lake in the Rattlesnake Wilderness to the north. The dam is in poor condition and no longer used for its original purposes of…
Photo: Desolation Wilderness, Utah by Bob Wick/BLM