The Wilderness Society

Dedicated solely to protecting spectacular parks, rivers, forests, deserts and shorelines of great American wilderness landscapes from coast to coast. Now, and for future generations.

How do you help people in my community?

 While our mission includes all of America’s public lands, we  maintain field offices throughout the country, each of which identifies local/regional special places in need of protection.  For information about our work closest to your community, please contact one of the offices below:  
 

Alaska  430 West 7th Avenue, #210  Anchorage, AK  99501-3550  (907) 272-9453  twsak@tws.org  California/Nevada  Presidio Building 1016  P.O. Box 29241  San Francisco, CA  94129-0241  (415) 561-6641  twssf@tws.org  Pacific Northwest  1424 Fourth Avenue, Suite 816  Seattle, WA  98101-2217  (206) 624-6430  twsnw@tws.org  Northern Rockies (1) 105 W. Main Street, Suite E  Bozeman, MT  59715-4689  (406) 586-1600  twsbzm@tws.org

Northern Rockies (2) 413 W. Idaho Street, Suite 102  Boise, ID  83702  (208) 343-8153  boise@tws.org  Northeast  45 Bromfield Street, Suite 1101  Boston, MA  02108  (617) 350-8866  ne@tws.org  Four Corners  7475 Dakin Street, Suite 410  Denver, CO  80221  (303) 650-5818  denver@tws.org  Southeast  1447 Peachtree Street, NE, Suite 812  Atlanta, GA  30309-3029  (404) 872-9453  twsse@tws.org

 

Why do you need my support?

 This year in particular, we need your support to strengthen our efforts to protect what we have identified as America’s 15 most endangered wild lands.  To create this list, we examined the severity of the threat to our national treasurers of  logging, mining, oil drilling, commercial development, or military activities. 

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge - Alaska
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the largest of our 514 national wildlife refuges.  From the mountains of the Brooks Range you can see a land of enormous geometry and light - a place where the sun beats down 24 hours daily during the summer.  Oil and gas companies see dollar signs.

Badger-Two Medicine - Montana
Sacred land to the Blackfeet and other tribes.  A hauntingly beautiful place where wolves and grizzlies roam in solitude.  The Badger-Two Medicine is named for two rivers that begin in the snowfields and glaciers of the Continental Divide.  With Glacier National Park to the north, the Great Bear Wilderness to the west and the Rocky Mountain Front to the south, the Badger-Two Medicine is a key biological thread in the tapestry of the vast Bob Marshall wilderness ecosystem.  But the petroleum industry views the Badger-Two Medicine as a cash cow.

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge - Arizona
Cabeza Prieta has more wilderness acreage than any other refuge in the lower 48 states.  Its name in Spanish means “dark head,” perhaps for the area’s chocolate-colored mountains.  But the silence in this spectacular desolate wilderness is periodically shattered by low-level military fighter jets and helicopters.  Under a new proposal from the military, this intrusion would get even worse.

Cascade Crest - Washington
A traveler along the busy Interstate 90 corridor east of Seattle is struck both by beauty of the landscape and by the jagged scars of degradation.  Verdant old-growth forest and water-falls contrast sharply with the starkness of clear-cut logging on steep slopes, the urbanization of the rural landscape, and growing commercial activity along the length of the corridor. 

Cumberland Island National Seashore Georgia
John F. Kennedy, Jr. and Carolyn Bessette thought Cumberland Island was the perfect place to get married; we think it’s the perfect place to preserve flora and fauna of a natural ecosystem.  Cumberland Island is the only remaining Georgia coastal barrier island that has not been developed and still displays an unspoiled environment once prevalent on all the barrier islands.

Izembek National Wildlife Refuge - Alaska
Does a 30-mile road belong in a protected wilderness area?  And should laws be changed to allow it to happen?  Congress is considering legislation to authorize construction of a road through eighteen miles of the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, including seven miles of its congressionally designated Wilderness Area.  The legislation could be voted on as early as June as either free standing legislation or as a rider to any number of appropriations or other bills.  The road would connect the fishing village of King Cove (population 800) to the community of Cold Bay (population 100), providing access to a large airport built there during World War II.  Road supporters in King Cove claim bad weather makes air and marine travel from their town unsafe.

Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge - Oregon/California
Considered a “western everglade,” the Klamath Basin of northern California and southern Oregon once contained some 350,000 acres of lakes, freshwater marshes, wet meadows, and seasonally flooded basins.  Over the past century, more than three-quarters of this great wetlands system has been drained and converted to agriculture.

Mojave Desert - California
This splendid area of southeastern California was ostensibly safeguarded when President Clinton signed the California Desert Protection Act in 1994.  But while over 3 million acres of land are already dedicated to military use in the California desert, the U.S. Army wants to chew up another 331,000 acres for a tank training ground.  Much of the land targeted by the Army was designated as Wilderness Study Areas by the California Desert Protection Act.

Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge - Georgia/Florida
If it’s not a good idea to zone industrial facilities near neighborhoods, why would it be a good idea to put a mine near the eastern edge of the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge, the largest forested wetland wilderness in the United States?

For thousands of years, the Okefenokee has been a sacred place of cypress swamps, prairie wetlands, and pine uplands.  Peat deposits up to 15 feet thick cover much of the swamp floor, causing trees and bushes to tremble with the approach of man or beast.  To Native Americans this is the “land of trembling earth.”  Since 1937, most of the swamp has been protected as the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.  This unparalleled natural treasure is now threatened by a massive mine proposed by the Dupont Company on lands immediately adjacent to the refuge.

Owyhee Canyonlands - Idaho
Remember the horror movie “The Blob,” about a monster that gobbled up people and buildings in a small town?  Wildlands across the West are being threatened by a blob disguised as the U.S. Military.  Despite the post-Cold War military stand-down, the Defense Department has pushed various proposals to expand training and bombing range facilities in Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah.

Petroglyph National Monument - New Mexico
Would you build a highway through the Sistine Chapel?  Apparently a lot of politicians think that’s OK if done in the name of development.  Just outside of Albuquerque are more than 15,000 petroglyphs carved into rocks at the base of a string of five volcanoes.  The priceless relics, some 3,000 years old, stand between Albuquerque and a proposed 18,000-home development, and the plan is to build a six-lane freeway through the monument to connect the city with the Black Ranch development.

Routt National Forest - Colorado
When an unusually strong easterly wind blew down most of the trees on 20,000 acres of the Routt National Forest in October 1997, it was called a “natural disaster.”  The true disaster, however, won’t be caused by Mother Nature, but the U.S. Forest Service.  Without taking the time to look at the opportunities for research, education and wildlife enhancement, the Forest Service has determined that the blowdown is an emergency situation best addressed by what could become the largest national forest timber sale ever in Colorado in a decade.

Utah Wilderness - Utah
Lost for all time.  Millions of acres of red-rock canyons, petroglyphs, and breathtakingly beautiful vistas.  If found, please contact the American people, who have been wondering what happened to the last, best places.

Western Maine Woods - Maine
On June 2, 1998, nearly five percent of Maine was put up for sale to the highest bidder.  The owner, Sappy Fine Paper North America (SFPNA), wants to concentrate on paper manufacturing so is seeking a buyer for 911,000 acres it bought just four years ago from S.D. Warren/Scott Paper.  SFPNA is a subsidiary of a South African corporation.  The wild qualities of these lands are noteworthy.  Sappi is the primary shoreline owner on 28 Class 1A or 1B lakes and 17 remote ponds.  All of Maine’s lakes were classified by state experts in the 1980’s.  The lands for sale cross the Appalachian Trail corridor in five different places and offer world-class opportunities for canoeing, hunting, fishing, hiking, birding, and camping.

How can I be sure that you will use my money wisely and won't waste it?

The Wilderness Society works hard to keep its management and fund raising costs as low as possible.  This past year, only 16.9% of funds were used to support this infrastructure.

Can I Volunteer? How?

Please contact the regional office (listed above) nearest you to offer your assistance.  Each office has different needs, and we welcome your help.  Plus, if you would like to join our Wild Alert activist network and receive regular updates on how you can participate in our advocacy work, please call the TWS’ office in Colorado at (303) 650-5818 for information.