Environmental Initiatives

The protection of ecologically valuable and wildlife-rich areas is a global concern. Adequate land must be set aside to maintain large ecosystems and the species that depend on them. But today’s unprecedented threats from logging, mining and commercial development require new and creative tools, including buffer areas around wilderness, connective corridors between protected areas and more thoughtful land use.

  • In the United States, we are working to permanently protect the nation’s last, best wild places for future generations.
  • In Australia, we are working to protect the rugged beauty of the Outback and the many rare and indigenous creatures living there.
  • In Canada, we are working to make much of the billion-acre boreal forest the largest conservation area in the world.

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Wilderness Designation

  • Oregonians Say They Want More Land and Water Protections

    Oregonians understand the importance of and want to protect the clean drinking water, ancient forests, wilderness, and wild salmon of the O&C lands. Voters believe that protecting old growth forests, bodies of water, and the wildlife that live there is the top priority.More

     

  • Dispatch from Cedar City, Utah

    The Bureau of Land Management oversees millions of acres of other public lands that sprawl across the region. These areas may not enjoy a park or monument designation, but they do provide an exceptional, off-the-beaten-path opportunity for a visitor to experience and enjoy canyon country. More

     

  • Making Great Lives

    Already in this 113th Congress, fifteen bills to add public lands to the National Wilderness Preservation System that Pew is working on have been introduced in either the House, Senate, or both bodies. Five of these bills have had hearings, and three have been approved by the committee with jurisdiction, which makes them ripe for floor action.More

     

  • Your Wilderness -- May 2013

    In this monthly issue of Your Wilderness includes the latest wilderness news, including a look at the Sonoran Desert, protecting Montana's HiLand region, and New Wilderness Legislation.More

     

  • Sonoran Wild Lands Have Their Day in the Sun

    The proposed Gila Bend Mountains Wilderness and National Conservation Area, part of the Arizona Sonoran Desert Heritage Act of 2013, is approximately 546,600 acres and comprises seven existing and nine new wilderness areas, including Saddle Mountain and Red Rock Canyon.More

     

  • The 50th Anniversary Wilderness Photography Contest

    With the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act approaching, Nature’s Best Photography has a special project is underway: a wilderness photography contest. More

     

  • April Showers Wilderness Action

    Five wilderness bills were the subject of congressional testimony and four others were introduced in April, proving that when it rains, it really does pour.More

     

  • New Indigenous Protected Area Declared in Australia

    Australia’s world-leading indigenous protected areas program continues to set new standards for conservation. At a ceremony in the desert of Western Australia on April 23, the 54th such area was created, extending the total amount of Australia now protected by its Traditional Owners to an area larger than California.More

     

  • Protecting Arizona's Sonoran Desert

    Based on intensive field work, a broad coalition of Arizonans has developed a proposal to more fully protect the stark-yet-fragile landscapes of the Sonoran Desert south and west of Phoenix.More

     

  • Earth Day Momentum Brings New Wilderness Bills in Congress

    As Americans across the nation celebrated Earth Day 2013, members of Congress got into the spirit by introducing more legislation to safeguard additional public land.More

     

  • Wilderness Bills Get Hearing in the Senate

    The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Forests will hear testimony today on a number of public lands bills, including five wilderness bills that together would protect over 200,000 acres of wilderness and 166 miles of wild and scenic rivers.More

     

  • Earth Day: Celebrating Our Common Ground

    This Earth Day we honor the dozen wilderness bills currently pending in Congress that The Pew Charitable Trusts is working to protect, and the citizens across our country who are advocating for preserving more of our original earth.More

     

  • A New Mexico Gem Will Shine Forever

    With the stroke of his pen, President Obama protected the Taos Plateau, San Antonio and Ute Mountains, and the famed Rio Grande Gorge a new national monument under authority of the 1906 Antiquities Act. Eight presidents since Teddy Roosevelt have used this law to protect land -- four each, Republican and Democrat.More

     

  • Golden Opportunities in the Golden State

    In the lower 48, no state is blessed with as much pristine wild lands and potential wilderness as is California. Home to some of the country’s most recognized and popular public lands—including nearly 150 areas already designated as wilderness, the Golden State is the one key place in the continental U.S. where we believe there are golden opportunities in the 113th Congress for this highest level of land protection.More

     

  • Both Congress and Obama Move on Lands Protections

    Last week, President Obama took action to safeguard public lands when he announced a slate of new National Monuments on March 25th. Pew’s U.S. Public Lands Program looks forward to working with Congressional champions and a reinvigorated Obama Administration to preserve additional wild places in the coming months.More

     

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