National forests, national parks and other federally-owned forests in the Pacific Northwest and Southeast Alaska hold extraordinary amounts of carbon and therefore play an important role in defending against climate change. According to United States Forest Service data, the ten national forests in the United States that store the most carbon per forested acre are all located in western Oregon, western Washington and southeast Alaska. Moist late-successional forests west of the Cascade Range mountains are among the Earth's greatest carbon storing ecosystems.
Join The Wilderness Society’s forest guru, Mike Anderson, as he takes you to one of the United States’ top carbon storing national forests — the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington state. As one of the most visited national forests in the United States, the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National forest is home to an abundance of recreational opportunities, old growth forests, glacier-covered peaks and spectacular rushing rivers.
Since its passage by Congress in 1906, the Antiquities Act has been a critically important tool for the preservation of our public lands – lands that belong to all Americans. Serving as a vital “insurance policy” for our nation’s natural treasures, the Antiquities Act gives the president the power to grant national monument status to areas possessing significant historical and/or scientific values.
This map illustrates National Landscape Conservation System locations, made up of the gems within our public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management.
The Forest Jobs and Recreation Act will permanently protect nearly a million acres of spectacular backcountry throughout western Montana, including nearly 700,000 acres as wilderness. This includes some 25 spectacular places conservationists have fought hard to preserve for decades. In addtion, the bill:
Testimony presented by Jeff Widen to the House Natural Resources Subcommittee for National Parks, Forests and Public Lands. The hearing occurred on January 21st, 2010. Jeff Widen is Conservation Designations Associate Director at The Wilderness Society. Highlights and key points of the testimony include...
The Izembek road proposal that moved forward with the passage of P.L. 111-11 (the Omnibus Public Land Management Act) would sacrifice 206 acres of high-quality federally designated Wilderness lands in exchange for about 56,000 acres of far-less-valuable non-federal lands. This exchange would sacrifice quality habitat for a greater quantity of acres. It is not a fair exchange, and should be rejected.
Wilderness Society's Annette Kondo sits down with Ken Burns to talk about his latest documentary series The National Parks: America's Best Idea. They talk about America's splendid public lands and the largest threats they're up against.