Ventana Wilderness, California
Success for Wilderness
We’re removing the "No Trespassing" signs from America’s Wilderness
More than a million acres of privately owned lands remain within federal wilderness areas, the legacy of 19th century mining and homestead laws. Some wilderness inholdings block access to public land. Others are vulnerable to development and fragmentation for mining, land speculation, road building, logging and energy development. Such development may put water supplies at risk. The Wilderness Land Trust is buying wilderness inholdings and uniting them with the surrounding public lands. Since 1992 we’ve added thousands of acres throughout the West to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Click below for a sampling of the places we’ve protected that will remain forever wild.
Wilderness Protected
“If the Wilderness Land Trust didn't exist someone would have to invent it, because expanding and connecting wilderness areas is about the best service anyone can perform for the wild. Given the unregulated proliferation of drilling, roading and poaching on most BLM and Forest Service lands, and with the juggernaut of climate change upon us, WLT is about as good as it gets. Thank goodness for WLT.”
Michael Soulé
Professor Emeritus of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz. Grandfather of Conservation Biology; helped establish the first university in Malawi, the Society for Conservation Biology, and The Wildlands Network, and served as president of the latter two; named by Audubon Magazine in 1998 as one of the 100 Champions of Conservation of the 20th Century.