Climate Change and America's Best Loved Places

America’s public lands — some 600 million acres of land and 150,000 square miles of protected waters—are the birthright of every citizen, and the legacy we hold in trust for generations to come. Global warming poses an unprecedented threat to the nation’s iconic landscapes — our national parks, forests, wilderness areas, and wildlife refuges. At the same time, protecting these natural places is more important now than ever before. Our country’s public lands store carbon and offer one of our best hopes for sustaining the plants, animals, birds, clean water and air, and recreational opportunities that are important to our heritage.

Beloved places at risk to global warming.

The Threat

Dramatic and rapidly occurring transformations to our lands and waters are well documented. Glaciers are receding. Beaches and coastal wetlands are eroding as sea levels rise. Inland lakes and wetlands are drying up. Droughts and severe storms are more frequent as precipitation patterns shift. Invasive species are gaining a foothold and native plants are struggling.Wildland fires are increasing in frequency and intensity. Wildlife that depend on these habitats are increasingly stressed — more so as urban sprawl, energy development, and motorized recreation encroaches on the very habitats set aside to protect them. These threats have wide-ranging impacts on human communities, as well. Wildlands support the pollinators on which our crops depend. They feed the watersheds that supply our drinking water. They afford opportunities for hunting and recreation. Protected coastal wetlands buffer homes and property from damaging storms. What happens to these lands ultimately affects us all.

The Solution

Maintaining healthy, intact ecosystems is one of our best options for helping wildlands and the species that depend on them adapt to climate change, and for sequestering carbon emissions. America’s public lands include some of the nation’s most intact and diverse ecosystems. The American people have protected these landscapes for more than 100 years since the first national parks, refuges, and monuments were created. Now, that work must be done with increasing urgency. New funding is needed to restore and better manage public lands where global warming’s impacts will be felt most severely, and to set aside additional lands to assure that key ecosystems and wildlife corridors are protected. Agencies must gather the best scientific information and be required to manage the lands in their care to adapt to climate change. If these resources are made available quickly, our nation’s lands will be protected, and also will help to protect us from the ravages of climate change.

See examples of public lands from across the U.S. where the impacts of global warming are already being felt, and where urgent action is needed to provide a solution. For every example presented, there are dozens of others with similar threats — and similar need for urgent congressional, executive and public attention and action.

Action

• We are working with members of Congress to pass legislation that will reduce carbon emissions and lower the level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, as well as seek to ensure funding for programs that provide for the protection, acquisition and adaptive restorations of our most critical public lands.
• Biologists, ecologists, and economists on our science staff are conducting research about the ecological and economic impacts of global warming on our public lands.
  • U.S. Forest Carbon and Climate Change
  • Environmental Benefits and Consequences of Biofuel Development in the United States
  • The Interplay of Fire, Carbon Storage, Charcoal, and Global Warming
  • Measuring Forest Carbon: Strengths and Weaknesses of Available Tools
  • Forest Management Fact Sheet
  • Carbon Cycling Fact Sheet
  • Fire and Climate Change Fact Sheet
  • Kinds of Carbon: Wildland Fires vs. Fossil Fuels Fact Sheet
    
• We have undertaken an extensive and thorough audit of our own carbon footprint, and have made a commitment to undertake a combination of conservation measures that will reduce our organization's carbon footprint.
  • LEED® Platinum Rating Certified green office in Boise, ID.
  • Remodel with energy efficient appliances and light fixtures in Denver, CO office.
  • Planned retrofit renovation of Washington, DC office to significantly reduce carbon footprint.
  • Use of 100% recycled office paper.
  • Careful monitoring of organizational travel/transportation carbon footprint and purchase of carbon offsets.
• We are in the process of developing a comprehensive, organization-wide campaign aimed at protecting and sustaining wildland ecosystems during climate change, managing public lands to reduce and remove greenhouse gas emissions, and enhancing public awareness of the issue of global warming as it relates to the public lands we are pledged to protect.

Read a statement on Global Warming released by The Wilderness Society's Governing Council.

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