TWS Leadership Campaign

Our time Our challenge Our chance

Our Wild Places. Our National Heritage. Our Inspiration.

our monumental moment Our nation’s wild places have never mattered more.

Wild rivers, towering mountains, that piece of undisturbed land close to home: they’re not just where we disconnect from the noise and bustle and technology, but where we reconnect

with a part of ourselves we can’t reach any other way.

And they’re where essential ecosystems and habitats find the space to thrive.

But our wild places only exist today because generations of Americans have acted on their behalf, and on ours.

Uncompahgre Wilderness, CO Š Jack Brauer

When they joined together to create the National Parks.

To pass the Wilderness Act. To halt the clear-cutting of timber.

At each of these turning points, people rose to the occasion and acted on a large enough scale to make a lasting difference.

Now, it’s our turn.

This is our monumental moment.

Mount Baker Wilderness, WA © Dave Morrow

our challenge

our chance

our vision

With the looming threat of climate change and the pressure of the largest energy boom in decades, this is the biggest turning point we’ve faced in a generation. Only one-third of our public lands have permanent protections—and if they become fragmented by development or drilling, plants and animals won’t have the space to adapt as ecosystems change in a warming world.

After years of work, The Wilderness Society’s national policy expertise and on-the-ground collaborative work have created new opportunities to make a lasting impact— today. Together, we can not only preserve our wilderness legacy—we can expand it to make it enduring for a new age.

If we connect wild landscapes so they remain resilient in a changing climate; guide energy development in a smarter, more sustainable way; and inspire a new generation of support for wildlands, we can renew our wilderness promise for the century ahead.

It begins with our shared leadership today.

Rio Grande Wild and Scenic River, Taos, NM Š Michael DeYoung

our vision:

connecting wild landscapes To keep wildlands resilient in the face of climate change, we need to secure entire ecosystems to ensure that wildlife can adapt and migrate. That requires permanently protecting large wild places and the “bridges� of land that connect those wild places together.

We do it by building diverse local coalitions that make the strong case required to designate critical wildlands as National Monuments, Wilderness Areas, and other specially designated conservation lands.

This approach has already resulted in major conservation victories in New Mexico, California, Montana, and elsewhere.

Now, we’re ready to build on our success and work with communities across the nation to help preserve our most precious wild places for generations to come.

Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks New Mexico

In New Mexico, The Wilderness Society built partnerships with legislative leaders, ranchers and sportsmen, small business owners, and Hispanic and Native American leaders—all of whom advocated for the protection of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks area.

Š Lisa Phillips/BLM New Mexico

Encouraged by the breadth of local support, President Obama officially designated the area a National Monument in May 2014, permanently protecting half a million acres spanning four mountain ranges.

our vision:

guiding energy development As the largest energy boom in decades gathers momentum, it’s no longer enough to just keep pace.

We have to get ahead of the boom—and stay ahead.

We do it by bringing together everyone with a stake—government officials, developers, and communities—and creating landscape-level leasing plans that will shape decision-making for decades.

Using this approach, we can guide development to the least environmentallysensitive places, promote renewable energy, and produce a net conservation benefit—enacting fundamental, lasting change in how energy is developed on public lands.

Mystery Canyon along the Virgin River, Zion National Park, UT © Michael DeYoung

America’s Arctic Alaska

Ground zero for climate change, the Arctic Slope of Alaska lies at the center of a national debate—whether we will protect our wildest places or exploit them for a few short years of fossil fuel.

After years of advocacy from The Wilderness Society and a cadre of voices who believe this important region is just too wild to drill, virtually the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was recommended for designation as federally protected wilderness in January 2015.

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, AK © P. de Graaf

We’ve also helped influence the final outcome of a plan to ensure that the 22.8 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve is managed for its significant conservation value as well as its oil and gas reserves. Now, while 70

percent of oil reserves remain open, all development will be directed to the least environmentally-sensitive places, and 95 percent of key wildlife habitats will be protected—11 million acres in all.

our vision:

inspiring americans

Deepening and broadening wilderness support is the only way we can sustain our past work and ensure the continued protection of our wild places for tomorrow.

We need our cause to be relevant to all Americans.

Through advocacy, improved access, partnerships, and outreach, The Wilderness Society connects people to wild places across the nation—creating the next generation of stewards to carry our wild legacy forward.

Because when people personally experience even some part of our wild America, the connection they feel will help them care for wildlands everywhere.

Sinks Canyon, WY

Š Brad Christensen/NOLS

San Gabriel Mountains California

Located within a 90-minute drive of 15 million people, the San Gabriel Mountains account for 70 percent of Los Angeles County’s open space and provide more than one-third of its drinking water. After sustained advocacy from the San Gabriel Mountains Forever Coalition—chaired by The Wilderness Society and including residents, business owners, recreation advocates, Latino organizations,

© Mike Hathenbruck

and environmental and youth groups—President Obama designated the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument in October 2014. Now this land will be secure for generations—welcoming a remarkable diversity of people who call this place home.

OUR OPPORTUNITIES With our approach, we have a chance to rise to the moment and set a course for the years ahead. That requires focusing on the right places—significant wildlands that mean the most for nature and people, where opportunity meets impact. Building upon an American legacy of protecting wildlands, major continental conservation opportunities stand before us today—and we’re ready to deliver by acting on a national scale.

NORTH CASCADES Enhancing recreational access and expanding protections for key forests and headwaters

NORTHWEST CALIFORNIA Connecting diverse wildlands in this global biological hotspot

GREAT BASIN Protecting wildlife habitat at a landscape scale through permanent and administrative designations

SIERRA NEVADA Permanently protecting and expanding public holdings for Yosemite, Sequoia, and other popular destinations AMERICA’S ARCTIC Securing vulnerable areas from drilling and helping them adapt to climate change

NORTHERN ROCKIES Connecting the 60-million acre ecosystem by safeguarding two million acres of wildlife corridors

CENTRAL COAST Securing critical wildlife habitat from the Central Valley to the Pacific Coast

SAN GABRIEL MOUNTAINS Ensuring the protection of southern California wildlands and CALIFORNIA DESERT connecting them with Balancing conservation and urban communities renewable energy in one of America’s largest primarily intact landscapes

Sources: USGS, ESRI, TANA, AND

Sources: USGS, ESRI, TANA, AND

Sources: USGS, ESRI, TANA, AND

LEGEND: DESIGNATED WILDERNESS

TWS FOCAL LANDSCAPES

FEDERAL PUBLIC LAND

MAINE WOODS Linking wildlife habitat spanning the Appalachian Trail

OUR GOALS

COLORADO RIVER WATERSHED Expanding core protected areas from alpine headwaters to red-rock canyons

RIO GRANDE BASIN Protecting the ecologically significant wildlands that sustain New Mexico’s diverse communities

10 MILLION acres of wildlands protected through new designations SOUTHERN APPALACHIANS Restoring habitat connectivity by protecting the remaining rich, biodiverse eastern temperate forests

20 MILLION acres of wildlands conserved through guided energy development 30 MILLION Americans connected to our public lands through outreach and strategic partnerships

Sources: USGS, ESRI, TANA, AND

Sources: USGS, ESRI, TANA, AND

THIS IS OUR MONUMENTAL MOMENT— and your support will lead the way forward.

Red Fork Falls, Cherokee National Forest, TN © Serge Skiba

FIND YOUR PLACE

in our nation’s wilderness.

TAKE YOUR PLACE

in our story of conservation leadership.

SAVE YOUR PLACE

and support the wild places that matter most.

Something will have gone out of us as a people if we ever let the remaining wilderness be destroyed … We simply need that wild country available to us, even if we never do more than drive to its edge and look in. For it can be a means of reassuring ourselves of our sanity as creatures, a part of the geography of hope.

– Wallace Stegner, Wilderness Letter, 1960 Former Governing Council Member, TWS

Humboldt Redwoods State Park, CA © Mason Cummings

The Wilderness Society’s mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. We contribute to better protection, stewardship, and restoration of our public lands, preserving our rich natural legacy for current and future generations.

The Wilderness Society 1615 M Street, NW Washington, DC 20036 1-800-THE-WILD wilderness.org/monumentalmoment

COVER PHOTO: Maple Pass, North Cascades, WA Š www.AndyPorterImages.com