Letter from the President
William H. Meadows
As a member of The Wilderness Society, you deserve the highest possible return on the investment you make when sending us a contribution. One measure of success is the acreage that wins permanent protection by being added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. That collection of natural treasures was created in 1964 by the Wilderness Act, originally drafted by Wilderness Society Executive Director Howard Zahniser. The system now includes 106 million acres, and by year's end, when the 109th Congress wraps up, that total will almost certainly be higher.
Unfortunately, establishing wilderness areas gets more difficult all the time. The commercial and recreational demands on these lands are increasing rapidly: oil and gas drilling, logging, mining, and inappropriate off-road vehicle use. Such activities can degrade a wild place before Congress can vote to protect it.
What's the answer? One important response to these challenges is to sit down with everyone who has an interest in the lands we believe should be preserved. Leadership on that front is coming from our Wilderness Support Center in Durango, Colorado. The people in that office work hand-in-hand with grassroots conservation groups such as the New Mexico Wilderness Alliance-but also make sure that we make the discussion table large enough to accommodate people who traditionally have not been involved. The list includes ranchers, local business leaders, union representatives, hunters, teachers, and religious leaders, among others. Demographic groups that have been underrepresented include Latinos, African-Americans, tribes, to name three. In short, we want to be in contact with anyone interested in protecting the natural world. Such outreach is now standard operating procedure throughout our organization.
Brent Eldridge's family has been ranching in Nevada for generations, and he has been a leading voice in discussions on a bill protecting wilderness in White Pine County. "We've had very good experiences working closely with The Wilderness Society," he says. "We appreciate the fact that staff members have listened carefully to us and have sincerely respected our views and hopes for the future. They have been very cognizant of our rural community needs and traditional uses as we have drawn proposed wilderness boundaries together."
Though these wilderness bills are at the heart of our mission, our staff devotes time to the sound management of all the lands that belong to the American people: national parks, national forests, national wildlife refuges, and the BLM areas. We simply cannot succeed in these ventures unless we build broad coalitions. For instance, we wage our campaign to limit logging in Alaska's incomparable Tongass National Forest alongside Taxpayers for Common Sense because this logging is subsidized by U.S. taxpayers. And the Outdoor Industry Association is an important ally in our intense efforts to safeguard roadless areas in national forests.
These lands we own in common-America the Beautiful-are one of the great benefits of U.S. citizenship. Just ask Anthony Smith, who lost his right arm in the Iraq war. On page 12 you can learn of his rafting trip along the Salmon River in Idaho. In a time of deep partisan divisions on so many issues, the protection of our natural legacy-redrock canyonlands, forests of giant Sequoias, deep blue lakes, and so much more-can unite us. Republican and Democrat, young and old, black and white, birdwatcher and off-road-vehicle rider: All of us have a stake in taking care of this inheritance and in making sure that our great-grandchildren will have the same chance to benefit from these special places. Thank you for making it possible for us to pursue this mission.
-- William H. Meadows
Photo of Bill Meadows courtesy Tom Barron.
