Pennsylvania is blessed with a wealth of public lands, including the Allegheny National Forest and over 2 million acres of state forests and parks. The Wilderness Society and local partners are working to better protect these public wildlands by enacting new state legislation and by adding new areas to the National Wilderness Preservation System.

A Campaign for the Allegheny National Forest
The Allegheny National Forest contains the state's largest designated wilderness area, the 8,663-acre Hickory Creek Wilderness area, which is dominated by 120-foot tall trees that shelter a number of endangered species. The forest also boasts the 4,100-acre Tionesta Scenic and Research Natural Areas, which contain extremely rare and valuable remnants of eastern old-growth forest. Citizens propose the Tionesta and other areas on the forest for wilderness protection as the Forest Service moves closer to revising its management plan for the Allegheny.
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Saving State Wildlands
Some of the wildest remaining lands in the East are found within Pennsylvania's system of state forests and parks, rivaling New York's Adirondack Park and Georgia's Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge. Despite their great ecological and recreational significance, however, Pennsylvania's state lands are currently subject to logging and oil and gas drilling with grossly inadequate public participation or scientific analysis.
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