Wildlands at Risk:
Executive Summary

It's summertime and Americans from coast to coast are heading to the great outdoors, leaving behind the stress of the workplace for the vast expanses of wild places that comprise America's extraordinary public lands system.

Americans love the outdoors and have long treasured the natural and scenic beauty of our lands and supported the preservation of the wilderness that is our American heritage and has shaped our American character. Hunters, hikers, boaters, anglers and families all seek the recreation and solitude that these landscapes provide. Increasingly, these places – from the forested hills of the Southeast to the rugged peaks of the Rockies to the towering ancient forests of the Northwest and Alaska – offer an escape from the frenzy of modern life, not to mention unparalleled recreational opportunities, clean water and wildlife habitat.

Regrettably, America's wildlands are facing an unprecedented threat from Bush administration policies that are threatening to destroy these special places and reverse decades of progress on public lands protection. Since taking office, the Bush administration has opened up an area larger than Texas and Oklahoma combined to logging, mining, and oil and gas drilling – including some of the most environmentally sensitive places – stripping protections from 10 percent of America's public lands. A recent issue of Sierra magazine catalogued this assault.

With each of these proposals – whether to ramp-up oil and gas exploration in the Rocky Mountain region, allow unfettered access for road-building and off-road vehicle use, or ultimately remove protection for hundreds of millions of acres of U.S. lands managed by the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management – the administration is allowing irresponsible corporations to benefit at our expense. By dismantling important environmental protections and pursuing development in previously unspoiled areas, the Bush administration is exploiting the public's land for private gain.

“Wildlands at Risk” is not designed to chronicle all the thousands of species places at risk. This is an introduction to a sampling of wild places across the country that represents the kinds of threats America's wildlands face from Bush administration policies. “Wildlands at Risk” chronicles 25 places covering all regions of the country – from Vermont to Georgia, Arizona to Alaska, Minnesota to Texas – where Bush administration policies have already and could have devastating impacts on the wild places that Americans cherish.