Wilderness Watch

09/03/2026

The Wilderness Act was signed into law on September 3, 1964.

Today, our nation's National Wilderness Preservation System covers 112 million acres of Wilderness in 44 states and Puerto Rico—protecting 150 distinct ecosystem types across the United States.

Wilderness Watch is the leading national organization whose sole focus is the preservation and proper stewardship of lands and rivers included in the National Wilderness Preservation System.

09/03/2026

The National Park Service has failed to keep the promise of a wild Cumberland Island.

Thanks to our friends at Wild_Cumberland for explaining how Park Service's new Visitor Use Management Plan (VUMP) for the Cumberland Island Wilderness and National Seashore prioritizes recreation over wildness.

Cumberland Island deserves better!

On Monday, the NPS (quite proudly) announced its authorization of a Visitor Use Management Plan (VUMP) for Cumberland Island National Seashore and Wilderness.

This decision, issued just six months after the agency’s public comment period, will more than double daily visitation by passenger ferry to MORE than 700 visitors per day. It involves building a retail store, adding campsites and infrastructure for new bathhouses and pavilions, expanding bicycle and e-bike use, and adding substantial commercial services….on a barrier island that is nearly two-thirds Wilderness & Potential Wilderness.

In its FONSI, the agency acknowledges, “Most of the 3,752 correspondences received during the comment period opposed some of the key actions within the plan including the proposed increase in the visitor capacity, the daily ferry delivery number, and the potential impacts to various seashore resources and wilderness character.”

The NPS had every opportunity to listen to the public and choose a different future for the island. Instead, they chose a path that will destroy the wildlife, wilderness, and primitive character that it is mandated to protect.

If you’re paying attention, you also know that the agency has also put forth some highly-controversial proposals for “land exchanges” that would allow private residents to build new homes within the boundary of the Seashore.

And no — neither plan acknowledges the other.

We know you are devastated. We’re hearing from many of you — while we can’t answer every inquiry right now, know that Wild Cumberland and our partners are evaluating every option available to us to ensure Cumberland island receives the protection it deserves — and the law demands.

You can help. Join us in calling for Congress to exercise its oversight authority before it’s too late. Contact your Congressional representatives today.

09/03/2026

Clean Water Act permit suspended for Izembek Wilderness road construction!

The fight to keep the Izembek Wilderness wild continues!

As we shared with you recently, on August 18 U.S. Federal District Judge Sharon Gleason vacated the Trump administration’s illegal land exchange to transfer public lands within the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and Wilderness to King Cove Corporation (KCC). This land exchange, done behind closed doors with zero public involvement, would have allowed the construction of a road through the Wilderness to connect the village of King Cove with the town of Cold Bay and its all-season airstrip.

With road construction slated to begin on September 1, this ruling represents a major victory for the Izembek Wilderness and its wildlife—and just in the nick of time. But it was not the end of the fight.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had in July issued a so-called Section 404 Clean Water Act permit to the State of Alaska for the construction of the road through Izembek. A Section 404 permit is required for dumping dredged or fill materials into the waters of the United States, including wetlands. Fortunately, the Army Corps of Engineers suspended that permit on August 26 following Judge Gleason’s ruling, thus withdrawing permission to fill wetlands and stream channels in Izembek as the state had planned.

Furthermore, Wilderness Watch and our allies had earlier, through our wonderful attorneys at Trustees for Alaska, filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) and Preliminary Injunction (PI) to stop the road construction in case Judge Gleason did not rule before construction began on September 1. That motion went before a different federal judge, Judge Aaron Peterson. Since the TRO and PI were no longer needed after Judge Gleason’s ruling, and not wanting to risk any kind of potentially adverse ruling from Judge Peterson, we successfully withdrew that motion on August 28.

As you can see, there are a lot of moving parts in this long-running fight to keep Izembek wild. Thankfully, Izembek and its wildlife are safe—for now.

This, of course, is not the end of the story. The State of Alaska may still try to construct 2.8 miles of road across private lands owned by KCC outside of Izembek’s boundaries, even though it would be another Alaskan “road to nowhere.” Still, even those 2.8 miles would add pressure to the ongoing efforts to build the complete road through Izembek as well as facilitate more illegal ATV use into Izembek. Our attorneys at Trustees for Alaska are looking for options to stop the 2.8 miles of road construction. And, after fighting this road proposal for a couple of decades, we know that the road proponents are not giving up!

A big thank you to all our members and supporters who have written thousands of letters to decision-makers and contributed to our efforts to protect the Izembek Wilderness and its wildlife over the years—this victory belongs to all of you!

BACKGROUND: Located near the tip of the Alaska Peninsula, the 315,000-acre Izembek National Wildlife Refuge—over 95 percent of which is designated Wilderness—is a remote stretch of land where a quarter-million migratory birds, including virtually the entire population of Pacific black brant, congregate each fall.

Nearly 7,000 caribou make their annual trek into the Wilderness where they overwinter, and hundreds of sea otters swim with their young in the Izembek Lagoon, occasionally in the vicinity of migrating orcas, gray whales, minke whales, and Steller sea lions. Massive brown bears—as many as nine per mile—lumber through wilderness streams during peak summer salmon runs.

The illegal land exchange not only endangered the health of a vast and thriving ecosystem, but would have set a dangerous precedent by allowing an agency appointee to trade away designated Wilderness and circumvent Congress.

The land exchange, announced by the Trump Administration’s Department of Interior in October 2025, swapped lands owned by King Cove Corporation for Izembek Refuge and Wilderness lands administered by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Our lawsuit challenged the agency for violating the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, Administrative Procedure Act, and National Environmental Policy Act.

The Native Village of Hooper Bay has long opposed a road through Izembek, and dozens of other tribes and tribal entities in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta have passed resolutions opposing the land swap and road, noting the importance of Izembek to critical food resources and subsistence traditions. The Native villages of Hooper Bay, Paimiut, and Chevak also filed a lawsuit challenging the land exchange, and Defenders of Wildlife had filed a third suit. The judge dealt with all three lawsuits together in her recent decision.

Wilderness Watch was joined on this lawsuit by Friends of Alaska Wildlife Refuges, the National Wildlife Refuge Association, Alaska Wilderness League, and Sierra Club. Law firm Trustees for Alaska did a great job representing our coalition.

Photo: Kristine Sowl/USFWS

09/02/2026

I go among trees and sit still.
All my stirring becomes quiet
around me like circles on water.

– Wendell Berry

09/02/2026

ICYMI >> Earlier this year, Wilderness Watch and our allies filed a complaint against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to secure the critical habitat—including in Wilderness—that threatened wolverines deserve and desperately need to fend off extinction.

No critter exemplifies our nation’s wilderness heritage more than the tenacious and beautiful wolverine. Wolverines are among the most wilderness-dependent mammals in the lower 48 states, persisting only in remote, high-elevation landscapes with deep snow and minimal human disturbance. Many of the...

09/01/2026

RIP Wendell Berry.

Listen as he reads "The Peace of Wild Things."

>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ewB0WL3bNw

08/31/2026

Heads up!

Mine proposal threatens Blue Joint Wilderness Study Area, River of No Return Wilderness, and grizzly bear recovery corridor!!

On August 14, 2026 the Forest Service announced the first official public comment opportunity regarding US Critical Materials’ plans to “explore” their Sheep Creek mine claim in the Bitterroot National Forest of Montana near the Idaho border.

Location matters, and the Sheep Creek mine could hardly be in a worse place for a mine.

The approximately ten-square-mile area of the proposed Sheep Creek Rare Earth Exploration Project sits at the doorstep of Blue Joint Wilderness Study Area and the Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness, and within the Allan Mountain Inventoried Roadless Area. Wilderness values like solitude, silence, and remoteness could be impacted by the close proximity of industrial mining activity and associated development.

The mine site is also in the headwaters of the West Fork of the Bitterroot River, home to threatened bull trout and a unique, non-hybridized and genetically diverse west-slope cutthroat trout population that has statewide significance.The mine site and surrounding area also supports iconic species of resident and migrating wildlife, like rocky mountain sheep, wolverine, elk, mountain goat, and Northern Rockies fisher. The area is also exceptional wildlife habitat suitable for recovery of locally extinct wildlife like Canada lynx and grizzly bears.

In fact, the proposed mining location includes a linkage area critical for connected wildlife habitat. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s recovery plan for grizzly bears, listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, relies on natural migration into this very area. The Idaho/Montana state line near Sheep Creek is a wildland migration corridor through the densely populated Bitterroot Valley heading into the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service designated Grizzly Bear Recovery Area. The proposed mine site interrupts this important and at-risk linkage area.

Mining is fundamentally incompatible with preserving Wilderness, wildlife, and clean water. Incredibly, the Forest Service is conducting the environmental review using a “Categorical Exclusion” (CE), the most superficial analysis available to the agency. Use of CEs is prohibited where significant or unknown impacts are involved.

It is very difficult to stop a mine no matter how much damage it would do. A groundswell of public opposition is critical right now, so please submit your own comments by September 13. Comments are not limited to science and economics, though such comments can be effective. Your love for the wildlife, wildlands, and surrounding Wilderness count for a lot.

Click here to submit your own public comments: https://wildernesswatch.salsalabs.org/oppose-sheep-creek-mine/index.html

08/26/2026

America's 112 million acre National Wilderness Preservation System protects over 150 distinct ecosystem types across the United States.

Our mission is to keep Wilderness wild!

📸 Allen Pecorino

08/26/2026

We have some good news to share—and you helped make it happen!

Earlier this year, the U.S. Forest Service released a Prescribed Burn Project with plans to burn all 289,000 acres of the Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois, including all seven Wilderness areas totaling nearly 30,000 acres. Incredibly, forest Service officials proposed to burn 25,000 acres annually, seemingly in perpetuity, including setting a torch to the Bald K**b, Bay Creek, Burden Falls, Clear Springs, Garden of the Gods, Lusk Creek, and Panther Den Wildernesses.

The type of sweeping manipulation proposed on the Shawnee National Forest is precisely what the Wilderness Act’s “untrammeled” mandate seeks to prevent—humans imposing their will on Wilderness to try to create managers’ desired conditions rather than allowing nature to shape the wild.

Over 8,300 of our members and supporters heeded our call to action and joined with us in opposition to this sweeping habitat manipulation in Wilderness. Earlier this summer, Wilderness Watch filed an official objection to the Shawnee National Forest, standing firm in our opposition to this misguided project, which called for tree cutting, burning, and motorized use—even in Wilderness.

On August 21, we got a letter from Shawnee National Forest Supervisor Felipe Cano informing us that our objection was successful and the agency was withdrawing the entire project!

This victory would not have been possible without the actions of our members and supporters—thank you!

Tap the photo below to get all the details.

Over 8,300 Wilderness Watch supporters took action

08/25/2026

"Greater Yellowstone serves as a perfect fulcrum for exploring the deeper meaning of wilderness. Formally designated federal and tribal Wilderness lands, wilderness study areas and roadless lands here and in other corners of the West and Alaska represent the very best expressions of what remains.

Many are in danger of being lost forever."

Yellowstonian launches a new never-ending series that celebrates wilderness as a homeland for the wildest of creatures, a fountainhead for clean water and a place to find solace away from the noisy, fast-paced human-dominated world