The Shoshone is unique in the quantity and quality of wilderness and roadless areas. We’re defending these wild lands against reckless development and road building.
As the nation’s first national forest, the Shoshone is uniquely wild and scenic. More than half is designated as wilderness and another 30 percent is considered pristine.
The Wilderness Society is leading a diverse partnership, San Gabriel Mountains Forever, to protect this rugged and often snow-capped range of pine forests, chaparral hills and clear rivers.
Background: Today, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), with original cosponsor Senator Max Baucus (D-MT) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), introduced the Natural Resources Climate Adaptation Act of 2009 (S. 1933) to protect communities, public health, and the economy by safeguarding our treasured lands, water, and wildlife from the impacts of global warming.
Statement by David Moulton, Director of Climate Change Policy
We prefer to inform you about advances in wild land conservation, but this week that opportunity has been denied for Idaho’s magnificent backcountry forests.
At the end of January, a federal district court upheld a dangerous federal rule that eliminates protection for 400,000 acres of Idaho’s wild backcountry and exposes more than 5 million acres in the state to greater threat of development.
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared in Wilderness Magazine, our annual publication that features in-depth coverage and features about the day’s most pressing conservation issues. Become a member and receive a free copy!
A few years ago, The Wilderness Society and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit to stop logging in an inventoried roadless area in the White Mountain National Forest. The legal action caused quite a stir in New Hampshire conservation circles. A number of organizations even filed a friend-of-the-court brief supporting the Forest Service plan to log in the Wild River roadless area.
I was a bit surprised that “conservation” groups would go out of their way to support logging.
No matter which way you look at it greater sage-grouse are in trouble. With population declines of over 90% from a century ago, and with remaining habitats under continued pressure from threats such as oil and gas development, the greater sage-grouse is teetering on the brink.
The greater sage-grouse — a once abundant bird in Colorado and throughout the West — is declining at an unprecedented rate. Numerous threats, including expansive energy development, continue to severely impact the sage-grouse and its habitat. Because of these rapid declines, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will decide in March whether to protect the greater sage-grouse under the Endangered Species Act.
