The Wilderness Blog

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My afternoon as a Polar Bear

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There was a bit of hesitancy in communications director Kathy Westra’s voice last Thursday when she asked me how I would feel about wearing a polar bear costume to an outdoor mid-day rally at the Department of the Interior to raise awareness about oil drilling in Arctic waters. As a communications intern new to Washington, I jumped at an opportunity to draw attention to myself, and I then proceeded to research the issue more in-depth, so I would know why I was wearing this enormous furry outfit in the noonday Washington heat. more

Bush’s Final Days: The last-minute environmental roll-backs you should know about

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In November, we told you about sweeping environmental roll-backs the Bush administration is rushing through in its final months in office. Since then, and just as expected, the news has not been good. In the short weeks since the presidential election, the administration has finalized numerous land management plans, regulations and policy changes that could severely damage our wild lands for decades to come. more

Public Says No to Drilling Utah’s Canyon Country. Will Government Listen?

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Will the Bureau of Land Management listen to more than 1 million Americans  and halt its plan to lease some of the Utah canyon country’s most pristine and spectacular wildlands? The BLM ignored conservation groups in the fall when they protested the agency’s plans to open much of the canyon country to energy development as part of new management plans that govern public land in eastern Utah. more

The Last Grassland (Part 4 of 4)

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This is the final installment of a four-part series on the beautiful, threatened Otero Mesa from New Mexico writer and Southwest Regional Office Administrative Assistant Zoe Krasney. more

The Last Grassland (Part 3 of 4)

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This is the third installment of a four-part series on the beautiful, threatened Otero Mesa from New Mexico writer and Southwest Regional Office Administrative Assistant Zoe Krasney. more

Identity Crisis: Bureau manages most federal lands - far from a household name

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Coming from Argentina as an intern to The Wilderness Society, I was recently asked this question while getting familiar with the work: Do you know who is in charge of managing most of the federal lands in the United States? more

The Last Grassland (Part 2 of 4)

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This is the second installment of a four-part series on the beautiful, threatened Otero Mesa from New Mexico writer and Southwest Regional Office Administrative Assistant Zoe Krasney. One of us spots something on the road, screaming “turtle”. As we discuss whether or not it is possible for a turtle to live in the desert, a truck roars by, then halts. more

Book Highlights Unique Beauty of Threatened Landscape

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From startlingly beautiful close-ups of feathergrass and prickly pear to oil storage tanks leaking black puddles that grotesquely mirror the open sky, the images in Otero Mesa: Preserving America’s Wildest Grassland match the bone-hard and evocative narrative of this endangered landscape. Recently published by the University of New Mexico Press, the book pairs text by prizewinning nature writer Gregory McNamee, with exquisite photography by Stephen Strom and Stephen Capra. more