The Wilderness Blog

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Forests in our children’s generation; Our 21st Century vision

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Feb. 16 was one of the proudest days in my 25 years working for The Wilderness  Society. That was the day we completed and sent to the U.S. Forest Service a 95-page comment letter that represents our best thinking about how our country’s 193 million-acre National Forest System should be managed to meet the challenges and demands of the 21st Century. more

Putting forests to work: How removing old roads will help in climate battle

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Take a close look at our national forests and you will find that they are scarred by a vast network of unused roads left over from years past. This road system was born of industrial logging practices allowed decades ago, but today it’s an outdated, crumbling and environmentally-harmful vestige on the land. It’s time to start removing these roads, not only because doing so will improve water quality and help decrease a massive maintenance backlog, but because it will give us one more tool in the fight against climate change. more

Saving North Carolina forests

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Four beautiful places in the forests of Central and Western North Carolina are being threatened with residential development. more

A promising trend - science and policy are reunited

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This year is shaping up to be a banner year for environmental policy. The Obama administration is making decisions based on sound science and reason, peeling away actions and policies created in the past administration that significantly weakened environmental protections. The administration is establishing a new hope for our forests and wildlife. more

Forest Service honors our own Steve Smith with Bob Marshall Award

Whether tucked away in his office in Denver or out exploring the forests, mountains, and canyons of Colorado, our Central Rockies Assistant Regional Director Steve Smith is immersed in the process of protecting the wilderness he loves. Now even the Forest Service has taken note, selecting him as this year’s recipient of one of their most prestigious honors: the Bob Marshall Award for Individual Champion of Wilderness Stewardship. more

Gov report shows problems from unmanaged Off-Road Vehicles

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A new government report released July 30 found that dirtbikes, ATVs, and other off-road vehicles are damaging our national forests and other western public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and that increased enforcement is desperately needed. more

What’s killing the whitebark pine forests?

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On a hot summer day last week, a group of forest scientists and managers hiked up a cool Idaho mountain ridge to look at trees in trouble. Whitebark pines are hardy, gnarly and long-lived trees at high elevations across the Pacific Crest, western Canada and the Northern Rockies of Idaho, Wyoming and Montana. While these trees have long withstood wind, snows and freezing temperatures for millennium, on slopes from 5,000 to over 12,000 feet — today, a combination of conditions puts the species at risk. more

Obama’s next big opportunity: Court decision gives president chance to shape future of forests

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Thanks to a court victory last month that tossed out misguided ideas for how the U.S. should manage its forests, President Obama now has a golden opportunity to replace them with his administration’s principles. The result could be a mandate for the Forest Service to make decisions about managing forests based on the 21st century imperatives of global warming and clean drinking water. more