As I shivered in the cold on our nation's front porch last Tuesday with millions of other Americans at President Obama's inauguration, I could not help but feel warm. For the first time in my adult life, one of our elected leaders had issued a call for each of us to do more. Echoing the words President John F. Kennedy once spoke to my parents’ generation, President Obama noted that our citizenship is more than just a privilege but also a great responsibility.

The Wilderness Society has presented its annual Congressional briefing book to members of the 111th Congress. In it we have outlined what we believe to be the most important federal land management issues for the new Congress, as well as substantial background material on our National Forests, National Parks, National Wildlife Refuges and lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The book contains the kind of information and analysis that Members of Congress and land-management professionals have come to rely on from us.