In North Dakota, a rich history of exploration and conservation stretches from the indigenous peoples to a future president to Sierra Club-North Dakota Chapter members, and today the obligation to North Dakota's wildlands is more pressing than ever.
When Lewis and Clark passed through North Dakota, it was a vast expanse of wild prairie teeming with wildlife. In the two hundred years since then, much of the state has been plowed under or 
taken over by towns and cities with their networks of highways, power lines, railroads, and oil and gas development infrastructure. A few wild places still survive in North Dakota’s National Grasslands where you can experience the awe that Lewis and Clark felt.
The very same river that Lewis and Clark used as a guide through the Northern Plains has now been dammed, channeled and tamed. North Dakota is home to one stretch of the Missouri River that looks much like it did when Lewis and Clark traveled through this region. There are vast cottonwood forests and spectacular wildlife on the 87 miles of the river known as the Garrison Reach. This stretch is increasingly threatened as development grows around the cities of Washburn and Bismarck/Mandan. North Dakota Chapter is trying to preserve a bit of what is left by proposing a new state nature park on the banks of the Missouri just south of Bismarck.
Today, the Badlands and prairies of the Little Missouri River country give thousands of people what they gave to Native peoples and later inhabitants alike: the beat of hardy life in our veins and a responsibility to preserve all the living creatures of prairie, and woodland from wanton destruction. However, these wild places are threatened by oil and gas development and off road vehicle use.
About 139,000 acres of our national grasslands (approximately 10 %) are currently protected as “road-less” (non-motorized) areas. Of that, just 32,000 of them are now considered “suitable for wilderness”. We need to protect all 139,000 acres of the “road less” designation and “suitable for wilderness” areas to make sure that these areas are preserved for the future. The North Dakota Chapter of the Sierra Club, with coalition partners and the MDH Nation, have proposed that these 139,000 acres be preserved and protected as a National Monument. More information on this proposal is in the Advocacy section.
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