The Wilderness Society works with people to protect our national forests. From local communities to members of Congress, from timber workers to folks in the White House, we are working to save our forests.  

Local communities depend on forests and forests depend on the communities that surround them. Federal forest policies need to work for the people as well as the land.

Pending forest bills

One of the ways in which we protect our forests is through legislation in Congress. By working with lawmakers, we can find solutions that protect our forests and the livelihoods of the people who depend on forests for jobs.

Currently, we are working on passing three important bills:

• Secure Rural Schools Act
  This bill provides funding for school improvement programs and stewardship projects in our national forests.
• Roadless Area Conservation Act
  This bill would make the landmark “Roadless Rule” an act of Congress.
• Forest Service Appropriations Act
  This bill would determine how well maintained trails and campgrounds are and whether the Forest Service can buy any new national forest land.

Roads, vehicles and access

Did you know there are about 380,000 miles of roads in our national forests? That’s enough to travel around the earth at the equator 15 times. Left over from a bygone era of poor logging practices, many of these roads are no longer in use and have fallen into disrepair, leading to serious problems in our forests.

Our work to address the road problem includes:

• Right-sizing an outdated road system in our national forests
• Managing off-road vehicles

Conserving roadless areas

Roadless national forest lands are some of the most pristine in America. They were not affected by the timber boom in the 1950s to 1980s, and have not been destroyed by mining or other reckless development. The Wilderness Society is working to conserve roadless areas across the United States.

Thanks to the Roadless Rule, 50 million acres of national forest roadless areas are protected from new roads and logging. After powerful industries tried to fight them in the courts, this rule is now the law of the land.

Colorado and Idaho have proposed their own roadless rules that pertain only to areas in the state. This means that local communities and The Wilderness Society are constantly advocating for the protection of the many thousands of acres of roadless forests left unprotected in these two states.