Notable Achievements over the Past Year
The past 12 months were very challenging times for those committed to conservation of our natural heritage, with the current administration continuing to push hard for maximum development of many cherished public landscapes. Even so, the support provided by members of The Wilderness Society, along with the capable work of our many allies, has helped produce a number of significant achievements.
WILDERNESS: We played a leading role in the creation of wilderness areas in four states, permanently protecting 910,000 acres. In California, more than 275,000 acres between the Oregon border and Sacramento, including the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the Lower 48, were added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. The same bill added 21 miles of waterways to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System. The other three states were: Nevada (558,000 acres of mountains and desert in east-central Nevada); Vermont (42,000 acres in Green Mountain National Forest); and New Hampshire (34,500 acres in White Mountain National Forest).
WILDLIFE REFUGES: We were leaders in the successful campaign to fend off numerous attempts in Congress to authorize oil drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s spectacular coastal plain.
FORESTS: A federal judge rejected the Bush administration’s rewrite of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and reinstated the original version, protecting 49 million roadless acres in our nationals. We also protected 9 million roadless acres in Alaska’s Tongass National Forest through a court settlement.… A federal district court ruled in our favor on a challenge to the administration’s attempt to weaken the Northwest Forest Plan’s aquatic conservation strategy…. The diverse coalition we helped organize to restore the Olympic Peninsula’s Skokomish watershed began removing hazardous logging roads…. We won our lawsuit defending a Forest Service decision to close two trails in Colorado’s Routt National Forest to off-road vehicle use—including a scenic alpine stretch of the Continental Divide National Scenic Trail—in order to limit environmental damage. A federal court threw out Bush administration forest management regulations due to inadequate review of the environmental consequences.
NATIONAL PARKS: Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton’s decision to limit river flows into Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park was illegal, a federal judge ruled in a case we filed with Trout Unlimited and other allies…. The National Park Service agreed to our coalition’s recommendation that there be a full review of the ecological impact of allowing recreational ATV use on nine trails in Wrangell-St. Elias National Park and Preserve in Alaska.
OIL & GAS: Our coalition mobilized public support leading to passage of a bill that will prevent oil and gas leasing and mining along the Rocky Mountain Front.… Congress passed a bill prohibiting oil and gas drilling or other mineral production at Valle Vidal, a unique portion of Carson National Forest that is vital to New Mexico’s largest elk herd…. A federal judge blocked leasing on 20,000 acres of a proposed wilderness area at Colorado’s South Shale Ridge, in response to a challenge we filed with allies.
OTHER VICTORIES: We helped derail Bush administration proposals to sell national forest lands and acreage overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management…. We worked with partners to secure $50.7 million for the Forest Legacy program, including funds to protect land at Maine’s Grafton Forest, in the Pennsylvania Highlands, in coastal North Carolina, and at other ecologically significant spots…. Appropriations from the Land and Water Conservation Fund that we helped move through Congress led to protection of high-quality—but threatened—natural areas in dozens of states, including lands at Acadia National Park (Maine), Huron-Manistee National Forest (Michigan), St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge (Florida), and Los Padres National Forest (California)…. We were leaders in thwarting a bill that could have disposed of more than 24,000 acres of public land in Utah’s Washington County, including desert tortoise habitat…. We helped close domestic sheep grazing areas in Idaho’s Hells Canyon, reducing the spread of pneumonia to the sharply declining bighorn sheep population in the vicinity…. Working with diverse partners, we helped update a landmark report on the best ways to reduce wildfire risks to communities and the environment, which is the foundation for much of federal policy…. We also spearheaded the successful effort to persuade Congress to endorse advanced, science-based approaches to wildland fires.
