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"Something will have gone out of us as a people if we let the remaining wilderness be destroyed."
– Wallace Stegner
 North America was once a vast, breathtaking
expanse of unbroken wilderness. Today
we're left with only remnants of that
wild America, and the future of those
remaining wildlands is not always secure.
The Sierra Clubs Wildlands Campaign is
committed to protecting more of our wildlands
and preserving the solitude, clean water,
wildlife habitat, and recreational opportunities
they provide.
Although the number of threats to our
wildlands has increased dramatically in
the last 100 years, the process by which
they can be protected and preserved is
straightforward enough. There are three
steps:
- Preservation — designating lands as permanently
protected parks, refuges and wilderness.
- Acquisition — buying threatened land
to protect it for future generations.
- Restoration — planning the rebuilding
and recovery of healthy natural systems.
Six Treasures Worth
Saving
The Sierra Club has identified six
natural treasures that are each still
large enough and wild enough to house
wildlife icons such as grizzly bear,
wolf, and salmon. Together, they are
prime examples of what could be lost
and what must be saved:
In Alaska, the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska
is home to polar bears, musk oxen, and
caribou, but the oil industry wants
to drill in the sensitive coastal plain
of the refuge. The Tongass
and the Chugach national forests
of southeast Alaska, the largest remaining
temperate rainforests on Earth, are
threatened by the ravages of industrial
clearcut-logging practices.
The Northern
Rockies encompass a vast region
of free-flowing mountain rivers and
large wild forests.
The Maine
Woods and its 60,000 miles of lakes
and rivers are threatened by commercial
logging and development.
The Everglades
are home to wading birds, alligators, and the rare Florida panther
- have been drained and are on the brink of collapse, a victim
of overdevelopment, pollution, and agribusiness.
The Utah
Wilderness is a fragile desert landscape
carved over time into unique redrock
canyons - is a prime target for corporate
mining, oil and gas drilling, and livestock
operations.
The Sierra Nevada and Sequoia National
Forest give life to rich, complex habitats
teeming with animals and boasting giant
sequoias thousands of years old, but
these forests are threatened by commercial
logging and off-road vehicles.
What's Been Lost: A
Snapshot
- More than 95 percent of America's
old-growth forests are gone.
- More than half of America's National
Forest lands (52 percent) have been
exploited by the timber, oil and mining
industries.
- More than 90 percent of our prairies
have been plowed under or paved over,
and more than 99 percent of the tallgrass
prairie is gone.
- More than half (52 percent) of America's
wetlands have been drained and developed
and the nation continues to lose more
than 100,000 acres of wetlands per
year.
The number of threats to our wildlands
has increased dramatically in the last
100 years: pollution, oil and gas drilling,
development, suburban sprawl and off-road
vehicles have added to the damage done
by logging, mining and overgrazing.
Wild America is under siege.
Threats to Wild Places
Assault on Wilderness: Department of Interior Undermines Future Wilderness Protections
Off-Road Vehicles:
The Sierra Club and other conservation
groups are pressuring federal land management
agencies to stop irresponsible off-road
vehicle use and step up enforcement of
current laws to protect the wildlands
and wildlife that have been left in our
care.
Energy Map:
See how the Cheney Energy Plan would affect
public lands across America.
Public Land Giveaway: Across the
West, state and local governments are exploiting a loophole in a
vague, long-ago-repealed road statute, RS 2477, to lay claim to
thousands of miles throughout our public lands.
Photo licensed to Sierra Club; used with permission.
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