Nevada
⸻
The Ruby Mountains
The Ruby Mountains, often called the “Swiss Alps of Nevada,” are known for their unparalleled outdoor recreation and hunting opportunities.
The area is the ancestral homeland of the Te-Moak Tribe of the Western Shoshone Indians and provides critical habitat for wildlife, including Nevada’s largest mule deer herd and the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout.
The Threat
In April 2025, the administration walked away from a Biden-era proposal to ban oil and gas development on nearly 264,000 acres in the Rubies for the next 20 years.
Russell Kuhlman
Executive Director
Nevada Wildlife Federation
This area is very special to all of us. ...we don't want it jeopardized by leasing.
There are appropriate uses on the landscape, but oil and gas is not one of them here in the Ruby Mountains.
Our Work to Protect The Ruby Mountains
The Wilderness Society works in close partnership with sportsmen organizations and the booming outdoor business industry in Las Vegas and Reno to ensure that permanently protecting these mountains from energy extraction is a priority for lawmakers.
Generous support enables us to:
- Guide campaign strategy, creative communications and grassroots outreach with partners like the Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition to elevate the $8-billion-dollar outdoor recreation economy with decision makers.
- Leverage trusted relationships with land agency staff and local elected officials that build bipartisan public support for a reissued mineral withdrawal for the Ruby Mountains.
New Mexico
⸻
The Greater Chaco Region
The Greater Chaco Region in Northwest New Mexico is a sacred landscape important to the ongoing cultural practices of the Pueblo, Hopi and other Indigenous Peoples throughout the Southwest.
The region includes places that were significant points of migration and centers for cultural learning and exchange over millennia. For modern-day Pueblo, Hopi and other Indigenous Peoples, this landscape is a direct, continuous connection with their ancestors and a place integral to their ongoing cultural practices.
The Threat
More than 90% of public lands in the area have been leased for oil and gas drilling and over 37,000 wells have been drilled, putting sacred sites and wildlife across the Greater Chaco Region at risk of being destroyed by a web of industrial development.
As an Acoma woman, I would not be who I am without places such as Chaco.
If these landscapes were ever obliterated by development, we would be missing a pillar of our history. We would not be Pueblo people.
Theresa Pasqual
Executive Vice-President
Crow Canyon Archaeological Center
Our Work to Protect The Greater Chaco Region
Over two decades, The Wilderness Society has built strong local relationships and trust that enables unique dialogue around protection for Greater Chaco and its adjacent Indigenous communities from the adverse impacts of oil and gas extraction.
Generous support enables us to:
- Support All Pueblo Council of Governors for ongoing meetings on Capitol Hill, where they advocate for maintaining the 10-mile buffer from drilling around Chaco Culture National Historical Park and securing passage of the Chaco Cultural Heritage Area Protection Act.
- Wield our communications visibility to protect the values of the Greater Chaco Region. As part of efforts to keep new drilling out of this culturally sacred landscape, we generated more than 15,000 public comments in just seven days.
Utah
⸻
Utah is home to some of the nation’s most iconic and awe-inspiring public lands. At Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, The Wilderness Society defends hard-won protections and builds support for lasting conservation in the face of ongoing efforts to open these places to drilling, mining, and other development.
Bears Ears National Monument
Established in 2016, Bears Ears National Monument in southeast Utah contains more than 100,000 archaeological and ancestral sites that are associated with Tribal stories and traditions.
It was the first national monument designated at the request of Tribal Nations. The Hopi Tribe, Navajo (Diné) Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe and Ute Indian Tribe of The Uintah and Ouray Reservation formed a coalition to protect these sacred lands and ancestral resources. The monument also contains significant paleontological troves of Triassic-period fossils.
The Threat
Pollution to air, soil and water from uranium mining is linked to cancer, kidney disease and other health threats that are plaguing Native communities.
In 2025, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum ordered a monuments review, putting Bears Ears protections, along with other national monuments, up for consideration for possible energy development.
I will continue to help other Tribes across this nation, but also to educate those that don’t fully understand the importance of coalition work, not only with Bears Ears. I’m so excited to sit alongside the other Tribes and continue to share our vision.
Davina Smith-Idjesa
Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition Representative and Co‑chair
Navajo Nation
Our Work to Protect Bears Ears National Monument
For 25 years, The Wilderness Society has been instrumental in elevating to the public and elected leaders the cultural significance of the Bears Ears landscape and securing critical protection provided by the Antiquities Act. We support the strategic leadership of the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition and local partners in Utah to co-manage and shape the future of their homelands.
Generous support enables us to:
- Lend critical legal, lobbying and mapping support to partners for defending the landscape and protecting the Antiquities Act—the critical law that enables presidents to create national monuments.
- Build lawmaker support for Bears Ears using a recent comprehensive report that we developed on grazing in national monuments. The report refutes claims that monument designations harm generational land uses like ranching.
Utah
⸻
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
Stretching across 1.8 million acres of rivers, stunning red-rock arches and epic sandstone walls, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is alive with history and cultural importance.
Designated in 1996, the monument in southern Utah is a place of gathering for many Tribes that have lived in and around Grand Staircase-Escalante since time immemorial. It also contains one of the highest concentrations of well-preserved dinosaur fossils in the world.
The Threat
An agenda in Congress seeks to legislatively roll back the monument’s management plan, raising the possibility of oil, gas and other energy development in the area.
Our villages today are living museums. ... I want [my grandkids and their kids] to go there and look at what I’ve seen through my lens, my eyes. If we don’t protect it, if we don’t respect it, then it’s going to go away.
Craig Andrews
Former Vice Chairman
Hopi Tribe
Our Work to Protect Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument
The Wilderness Society has spent over a decade investing in concrete scientific evidence that documents why the monument is a globally significant treasure. We supported the public launch of the Grand Staircase-Escalante Inter-Tribal Coalition, which now directly advocates on behalf of the monument and its boundaries.
Generous support enables us to:
- Collaborate with the scientific community to deliver a letter—signed by 150 scientists from all over the world—calling on Congress and the administration to defend the monument from energy extraction.
- Develop and share premier storytelling content with millions of Americans to emphasize the stunning values of Grand Staircase-Escalante—and what’s at risk from uranium mining. Recently, these advocacy tools helped generate more than 16,000 petition signatures to House and Senate offices on Capitol Hill.
Wyoming
⸻
The Northern Red Desert and Big Sandy Foothills
In the southwest corner of Wyoming, the Northern Red Desert and Big Sandy Foothills are wide-open public lands rich with cultural sites and wildlife habitats.
They are home to Wyoming’s longest pronghorn migration, and contain critical habitat for imperiled bird species like burrowing owls, golden eagles and sage grouse. Visitors flock to the region for family camping, bike riding, hunting and traditional food gathering.
Several Tribes, including the Eastern Shoshone, Northern Arapaho, Ute, Crow and Northern Cheyenne, call these lands home.
The Threat
The Bureau of Land Management reopened the widely celebrated Rock Springs Resource Management Plan for the region.
The move raises significant concerns that the agency’s new leadership will scrap years’ worth of careful planning and public input to fast-track more energy development in this beloved corner of Wyoming.
Andrea Orabona
Retired wildlife biologist
Concerned citizens and organizations have been inspired to protect the Northern Red Desert from exploitation since the late 1800s. I hope that we can finally get some protection and real conservation actions in place so we can keep this space as it is for us and for future generations.
Our Work to Protect the Northern Red Desert and Big Sandy Foothills
The Wilderness Society partners with groups locally to ensure that the Northern Red Desert and Big Sandy Foothills will remain intact with preserved cultural heritage sites and healthy wildlife populations. Our investments in grassroots relationships and credible research are key reasons we’re able to work across political aisles and find common ground to advance conservation.
Generous support enables us to:
- Fund an independent geologic study in this region of southwestern Wyoming that found almost zero oil and gas potential. The research has been instrumental in elevating the conservation priorities of the landscape—instead of speculative drilling—with agency and congressional decision-makers, the public and the state of Wyoming.
- Support local partners—Tribal leaders, county officials and others—as they travel to Washington, D.C. to speak with decision-makers. Their voices are defeating a one-sided myth that oil and gas drilling is what residents want for their children and grandchildren in this cherished Wyoming wonderland.
More landscapes at risk
1. Alaska, America’s Arctic
2. Arizona, Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni
3. Arizona, Ironwood Forest National Monument
4. Colorado, Western Colorado Canyons and Mesas
5. Minnesota, Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness
Built with Shorthand