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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River of No Return Wilderness threatened by giant strip mine
Perpetua Resources (formerly Midas Gold) is proposing a massive strip mine on the Payette National Forest at the doorstep of the famed Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness and in the headwaters of the East Fork of the South…
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Keep the Promise of a Wild Cumberland Island
Cumberland Island National Seashore and Wilderness is the largest undeveloped barrier island on the eastern seaboard and one of the gems of America’s National Park system. Massive live oak maritime forests, saltwater marshes, and a spectacular white sand beach—home…
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Yes to grizzlies and Wilderness in the North Cascades
Grizzlies historically roamed what today is North Cascade National Park and the surrounding Wilderness and wildlands of north-central Washington—and we should help grizzlies return to this landscape. To that end, the National Park Service and U.S. Fish & Wildlife…
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Protect Wilderness at Isle Royale National Park
The National Park Service (NPS) has begun a planning process to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for a Wilderness Stewardship Plan at Isle Royale Wilderness and National Park. The agency is considering a broad range of actions for…
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Let natural fires shape the Powderhorn
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) proposes to use helicopters to ignite fire in the Powderhorn Wilderness and Wilderness Study Area (WSA) in southwestern Colorado, a plan Wilderness Watch strongly opposes. The 62,000-acre Powderhorn Wilderness is a high-elevation landscape…
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Good news for the Hoover Wilderness
The Hoover Wilderness scored a win when the Forest Service (FS) issued a decision on November 3, 2022 to keep part of the area closed to cattle grazing, thanks to pressure from Wilderness Watch and our members and supporters. The…
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Wildernesses spared from burn plan
Due to pressure from Wilderness Watch and Western Watersheds Project, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to scrap its misguided plan to torch the sagebrush habitat and native pinyon-juniper forests of the remote Highland Ridge and White Rock Range Wildernesses in…
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Water won’t run uphill
Due to pressure from Wilderness Watch, Western Watersheds Project, and other groups, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has decided to scrap a water development project in the Paiute Wilderness in northwest Arizona. This project, whose purpose was to facilitate…
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What it means to be “Wilderness” at Cube Cove
The Forest Service (FS) is proposing a massive “restoration” project in the Cube Cove area of the Kootznoo Wilderness in Alaska. Much of the 23,000-acre area was logged and roaded prior to the FS purchasing it in several…
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Double the harm to Sids Mountain
Wilderness Watch is opposing a project to build a barrier, using motorized equipment, within the Sids Mountain Wilderness in Utah. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has failed, for 20 years, to prevent ATVs from illegally entering the…
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You made a difference for Wilderness in CA
Thanks to comments from our members and supporters, the Forest Service (FS) has issued a draft Environmental Assessment that excludes Wilderness, Wilderness Study Areas, recommended Wilderness, and roadless areas from its Region 5 Post Disturbance Hazardous Tree Management Project. This project…
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Take down the fence and save Tule elk at Point Reyes
As a tragedy continues at Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California, Wilderness Watch is urging the National Park Service (NPS) to end the tragic, ongoing deaths of rare Tule elk at Point Tomales in the Phillip Burton Wilderness, by…
Photo: Desolation Wilderness, Utah by Bob Wick/BLM