90 years of conservation at The Wilderness Society
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska
Mason Cummings, TWS
Celebrating a history of protecting nature and fighting for the future
For 90 years, The Wilderness Society has been a steadfast force for nature and people. We’ve stood with communities, partnered with Indigenous nations, tracked wildlife migration to shape science-based policy, and carried local public lands battles to Washington, D.C.
This anniversary comes at a pivotal moment—when some in Congress are proposing to sell off public lands. But history reminds us: with resilience, creativity, and unwavering purpose, we endure. Together.
We’ve done it before. We’ll do it again.
Founded by conservation giants like Aldo Leopold and Bob Marshall, The Wilderness Society helped pass the landmark 1964 Wilderness Act, protecting more than 111 million acres in their natural state. In 1976, we became the first national conservation group to name a woman as president. Over nine decades, we’ve worked alongside 15 presidential administrations, defended Alaska’s Arctic wildlands for over 50 years, and led groundbreaking science—our experts were the first to quantify “wildness.”
We’ve helped establish hundreds of national monuments, wildlife refuges, and federally designated wilderness areas.
But it hasn’t been easy.
We stood with Appalachian communities in the shadow of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. We bore witness as Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments were reduced for oil and gas drilling. We’ve seen the Arctic Refuge, one of the most sacred and fragile ecosystems on Earth, opened to industrial extraction. And we watched old-growth trees in the Tongass National Forest fall, their carbon released into a warming world.
Those losses scarred the land—but never our spirit.
Our legacy is rooted in the courage of conservation pioneers. But our strength today lies in the thousands who raise their voices—who rally, write, and organize to keep public lands in public hands.
For 90 years, we’ve fought for a future where people and the planet flourish together. Our humanity depends on it. And we’re not backing down now.
Join us. Defend America’s wild places.
