Wilderness News Releases

Beauty Mountain proposed wilderness (CA);
© Doug Steakley

Conservationists cheered House passage today of another three wilderness bills, and urged the Senate to take the measures up quickly. The bills, which passed by voice vote, will together protect for all Americans more than 320,000 acres of wild public land in California and New Mexico. From California’s iconic Joshua Trees and Giant Sequoias to New Mexico’s 1,000-foot-deep Cañon Largo, more of our natural treasures will stay as they are for future generations, thanks to the action of Congress today.

Pressure Ridge in Badlands, © Greg Burke

We applaud Senator Wyden and the Oregon Natural Desert Association today for putting together such a wildly popular Badlands wilderness bill. The outpouring of bipartisan business community backing for the proposal is impressive. Add in ranchers, mountain bikers and others, and this bill enjoys an incredibly broad base of support. A 2005 poll of Deschutes County, Oregon voters found that 69 percent supported wilderness protection for the Badlands. The area's fantastic rock formations, just 15 miles east of Bend, is a 30,000-acre area filled with fascinating lava flows and ancient junipers.

Bonnie Lake at sunset, in Eastern Sierra
proposed wilderness; © John Dittli

As Americans gather this Memorial Day weekend to remember those who have served, Republicans and Democrats in Congress have again come together to serve our country in a different way-by working to protect as wilderness more of our country's last, best wild places.

Pictographs in Dominguez Canyon;
© Mike Matz

Two important wilderness measures were introduced by Colorado lawmakers yesterday to protect more of the Centennial State's wild public land. The Dominguez-Escalante National Conservation Area and Dominguez Canyon Wilderness Act, introduced by Senator Ken Salazar and Representative John Salazar, will create the approximately 200,000-acre Dominguez-Escalante Canyons National Conservation Area, which includes the more than 66,000-acre Dominguez Canyon Wilderness area. Senator Salazar also introduced legislation to protect nearly 20,000 acres in Colorado's Browns Canyon-one of the last pristine canyons in the state.

The Campaign for America’s Wilderness joins conservationists from around the country in expressing thanks to the Members of the House Committee on Natural Resources, who today approved three major bills that will forever protect some of our best wild lands for future generations. We are especially appreciative of the dedicated, hard-working local conservationists in California and New Mexico who helped develop and support these important wilderness initiatives.

Bear Mountain in Wild Sky Wilderness;
© Tim Greyhavens

President Bush today signed the Consolidated Natural Resources Act of 2008, which includes the Wild Sky Wilderness measure (H.R. 886/S.520) to permanently protect 106,000 acres of scenic national forest lands in the Wild Skykomish River region in Washington State. "We've waited a long time for this day, and oh what a great day it is," said Jon Owen, Deputy Campaigns Director for the Campaign for America's Wilderness--who as former Campaign Director for the Washington Wilderness Coalition helped launch the effort to protect this special wild place eight years ago.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee today approved five important wilderness bills, sending them to the Senate floor, during a markup of four dozen public lands, forests, water and historic site bills.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the first and second wilderness bills of 2008 today—protecting land from one coast of the nation to the other. The Wild Monongahela Act (H.R. 5151) would designate more than 37,000 acres of the wildest land left in the Monongahela National Forest, and the Copper-Salmon Wilderness Act (H.R. 3513) would ensure permanent protection of some 14,000 acres of pristine, old-growth forest surrounding the headwaters of the Elk River in the Siskiyou National Forest on Oregon's southern coast.

The Campaign for America's Wilderness applauds the work of the Owyhee Initiative Work Group, Senator Mike Crapo (R-ID), and Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-NM), which has resulted in today's hearing before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests on the Owyhee Public Land Management Act of 2008 (S.

As the nation prepares to observe the 38th annual Earth Day, a new national report calls attention to ten wild places that are in trouble-places of our original Earth increasingly at risk of losing their wilderness qualities.  Wild...for How Long?  Ten Treasures in Trouble (PDF 5.8 MB) looks at some of the country's yet unprotected wild land and finds that from coast to coast, many of America's special wild places remain vulnerable to mining, drilling, roadbuilding, logging, development and off-road vehicle abuse.