These are very challenging times for conservationists, with both Congress and the president pushing for more development across some of Americans’ most cherished landscapes. Even so, since last fall’s edition of this annual magazine, the support provided by members of The Wilderness Society, along with the capable work of our many allies, has helped produce a number of significant achievements.

Wildlife Refuges

• We helped mobilize support that blocked efforts in Congress to authorize oil drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s fabled coastal plain.
• We played an active role in preventing construction of an amphitheater along the border of Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge.

Wilderness Protection

• A federal appeals court ruled that a nine-mile road could not be built up the Speculator Creek drainage in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area.
• An important precedent was established when a federal court agreed with our claim that commercial salmon stocking in a wilderness area in Kenai National Wildlife Refuge violated the Wilderness Act.
• A federal district court rejected the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s attempt to permit road construction in Arizona’s Arrastra Mountain Wilderness.
• Through a broad public education campaign marking the 40th anniversary of the Wilderness Act, we raised understanding of and support for wilderness protection.
• The State of Utah withdrew its first claim using a 139-year-old law to claim tracks and trails as state rights of way. The state’s “R.S. 2477” claim, along with other such claims, could open hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness to vehicular traffic.

Forests

• Despite a relentless, four-year campaign by the administration to eliminate protection of roadless areas in our national forests, no commercial logging or road building has occurred on those lands.
• The Forest Service blocked a proposed power line through the heart of the Tumacacori Highlands, 40 miles south of Tucson.
• In its 15-year management plan, the Forest Service agreed to manage 28,000 acres in Medicine Bow National Forest as recommended wilderness.
• The Forest Service announced plans to temporarily defer oil and gas leasing of some 175,000 acres in the Bridger-Teton National Forest’s Wyoming Range following a public outcry over the leasing.

Off-Road Vehicles

• The U.S. Bureau of Land Management dropped its proposal to establish a major off-highway vehicle recreation area inside Gunnison Gorge National Conservation Area in Colorado, a scheme that would have set a troubling national precedent.
• We helped defeat an attempt by the off-road vehicle lobby to open routes that had been closed due to resource damage in a citizen-proposed wilderness area in the Robledo Mountains north of Las Cruces, New Mexico.
• Our coalition succeeded for a second year in keeping Jet Skis and similar vehicles out of Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore and 12 other national parks.
• We have been actively engaged in development of Forest Service rules that, once final, are supposed to curb damaging off-road vehicle activity.

National Landscape Conservation System

• The 1996 establishment of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument did not violate the Antiquities Act or other laws, a federal court ruled in April 2004.
• We played a leading role in passage of an amendment barring oil and gas drilling within at-risk national monuments and, through our new BLM Action Center in Colorado, undertook a series of public education initiatives that have increased citizen involvement in preservation of the National Landscape Conservation System.

Land Investments

• We were part of a successful effort with The Nature Conservancy and others to protect 41,000 acres of wilderness in Maine’s Debsconeag Lakes region.
• We helped convince Congress to appropriate money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Forest Legacy program to acquire, and thereby protect, lands threatened by development in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, along important streams in Pacific Northwest national forests, at Florida’s Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, and elsewhere.

Energy Policy

• We were actively involved in the so-far successful effort to prevent passage of an energy bill that would have allowed extensive oil and gas drilling on ecologically sensitive public lands in the Rockies, Alaska, and elsewhere—and would have subsidized this industry.

Fire Policy

• We worked with the National Park Service to produce a landmark management plan for Yosemite that balances community protection with the need to allow fire to play its critical ecological role in the Yosemite Wilderness.
• In August a federal judge rejected a timber sale that we opposed in the Duncan Canyon Roadless Area in the Sierra Nevada.

New Wilderness Designated

• Late in 2004, significant wilderness areas in Nevada and Wisconsin were added to the National Wilderness Preservation System. The Wilderness Society and our state partners fought hard for the designation of these areas.

Court Swats Secrecy

• In a suit initiated by The Wilderness Society, a Federal judge ruled that the Bush administration violated the Freedom of Information Act by concealing documents on a secret deal making development possible on more than 150 million acres in Utah and elsewhere.

Drilling Stopped

• The Rocky Mountain Front was threatened earlier this year when the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began to review new drilling permits proposals. The public response was overwhelming, with 99 percent of the more than 49,000 comments urging the agency to halt the drilling proposal. The BLM has since announced it would stop considering the proposals.
• The Department of Interior announced it would not approve drilling for natural gas along Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, at least for the time being.

A Hopeful Future

• These victories prove that we can continue to obtain victories even in the current political climate. As a WildAlert activist, your continued willingness to take action is the key to our achieving success on these issues and those sure to come. Thank you and keep up the good work!

Now, click here to read more about the outlook for the year ahead.