Notable Achievements Over the Past Year
With both Congress and the president pushing for more development across some of Americans' most cherished landscapes, 2006 was a very challenging year for conservationists. Even so, the support provided by our members, allies and partner groups, has helped The Wilderness Society achieve a great deal this year. Here's a sampling.
Arctic Refuge
We helped thwart numerous well-funded attempts in Congress to authorize oil drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's spectacular coastal plain.
National Forests
Our lawsuit, brought with conservation partners, reinstated the Clinton-era Roadless Rule to protect some 50 million pristine acres on our national forests. Unfortunately, the Tongass National Forest in Alaska, was exempted from the ruling, so our work to protect it from logging continues.
>> Find out more about September's Roadless Rule decision
An additional ruling on our roadless lawsuit in December 2006, puts in question hundreds of oil and gas leases on roadless areas let during the past six years. Despite a relentless campaign by the administration to eliminate protection of roadless areas in our national forests, we fended off, project by project, nearly all commercial logging and road building on these lands.
We helped lead a successful campaign against plans promoted by Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) and the Bush Administration to sell millions of acres of public lands to mining and development interests.
Teshekpuk Lake, Alaska, Protected from Drilling
Our lawsuit brought a ruling that struck down the Interior Department's leasing plan for the fragile wetland and wildlife habitat, and prohibits the BLM from proceeding with a planned sale of oil and gas leases on more than 400,000 acres around the lake. The court found the government's environmental analysis violated federal environmental laws.
>> More on the Teshekpuk Lake ruling
National Parks
We played a leading role in defeating an effort by the Bush administration to put commercial development and motorized recreation ahead of resource conservation in setting management priorities for the National Park System.
>> More on motorized recreation in National Parks
Wilderness
The Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act protects 273,000 acres, including the magnificent King Range, the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the lower 48 states.
>> Read more about the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act
The New England Wilderness Act of 2006 designated for permanent protection 42,000 acres of national forest land in Vermont, and 34,500 acres in New Hampshire.
We won permanent protection for 100,000 acres of western Utah's Cedar Mountains.
We were leaders in persuading the Forest Service to reconsider an ill-advised proposal to use helicopters to chase and capture wolves in the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.
>> Helicopters in Wilderness? Read more.
Protecting Special Places from Oil And Gas Drilling
>> Our coalition fended off drilling along the Rocky Mountain Front.
>> We were actively involved in the successful effort to prevent oil drilling at Carrizo Plain National Monument in central California.
We won a court ruling that the leasing of 16 parcels inside proposed wilderness areas in southern Utah violated federal law.
With our partners, we secured an administrative halt of contested new leases in the Wyoming Range portion of the Bridger-Teton National Forest.
Other Victories
>> In an historic decision, a U.S. District Judge blocked the federal government from giving away to developers the long-standing reserved water of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park.
Maine voters approved a bond issue that will refortify the Lands for Maine's Future program.
>> A federal appeals court upheld the creation of Utah's Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, affirming a president's authority under the Antiquities Act to safeguard threatened public lands.
We have been instrumental in preventing damaging road development through public lands, despite the Bush administration's efforts to promote such roads through its interpretation of a nineteenth-century mining statute (RS-2477).
We teamed up with small business owners in Vermont who opened a gallery promoting forest products made in a sustainable fashion, using our gallery in western Maine as a model.
