Dear WildAlert subscriber,

Last week, we asked you to help us give a personal touch to Wilderness by sending us your stories, memories and thoughts about wild places. We were truly moved by the heartfelt response we received. Thank you!

This week, please join our petition drive to urge Congress to protect some of our most precious wild lands before adjourning the 108th session. You can sign the petition at:
http://www.40Wildyears.org

We've set up this special site to allow you to take action and learn more about wilderness in preparation for September 3, the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Wilderness Act. After you sign the petition, we hope you will look around our site and explore the many wilderness resources we have there

Photo: Blue Lakes Wilderness Study Area, Nevada. Photo courtesy of Bureau of Land Management.

Background
Many areas desperately need permanent protection as Wilderness-- places like Utah's Redrocks wilderness, the Arctic Coastal Plain, and beloved areas in Washington, West Virginia, Vermont, Virginia and Montana.

Some of these places, always at risk of the encroachment of development, are especially threatened now, because of radical policy changes by the Department of Interior. In the last two years, DOI has:

- Issued directives prohibiting the Bureau of Land Management from inventorying public land for wilderness character and recommending suitable lands for wilderness.

- Released rules that make it easier for wilderness opponents to claim rights-of-way across our most sensitive public lands.

- Made oil and gas development the dominant use of western public lands at the expense of wildlife, recreationists and the preservation of wilderness character.

As a WildAlert subscriber, you are most likely familiar with the many other assaults on public lands that undermine the protection of wild places, from the removal of protections for roadless areas on national forests to the capitulation to snowmobilers in Yellowstone. These actions have resulted in the opening of wilderness-quality lands to mining, oil and gas drilling, logging and road building, which could despoil these wild places forever.

Photo: Sunset in Utah's Behind the Rocks Wilderness Study Area. Photo courtesy of Tom Till.

What You Can Do

Take action now at: http://www.40WildYears.org

Every day that goes by without Wilderness protection leaves these lands at risk. Just one example: The stunning, wild Colorado landscape known as South Shale Ridge. While this area is still awaiting congressional action, the Bush administration's Bureau of Land Management is moving swiftly to open the area for oil and gas drilling, which would make the area ineligible for Wilderness designation.

With the exception of the current Congress and just one other, every single congressional session since 1968 has passed wilderness legislation. Thus far this session, not one single acre of land has been designated as federally protected wilderness. We can and should expect the same vision and foresight from members of the 108th Congress.

The 108th session is almost over; we must act now to make sure this Congress does not go down as the worst in history on wilderness protection.

Please sign our petition urging Congress to support the protection of America's wild places: http://www.40WildYears.org

And once you've done that, please forward this message to your friends and family. America's Wild Lands can't afford to wait!

Celebrate!

In celebration of the Wilderness Act's 40th anniversary, thousands of citizens will be participating in events, from group hikes and canoe trips to conferences and other events. We'll be reflecting on what's already been accomplished and what still needs to be done to protect America's wilderness heritage. Learn more.

Wilderness40 anniversary events:
http://www.wilderness.org/Library/Documents/WR122-20040806.cfm

Current wilderness campaigns:
http://www.wilderness.org/OurIssues/Wilderness/campaigns.cfm

Learn more about the people who first envisioned the Wilderness System:
http://www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/history.cfm?TopLevel=About

Step into the History of the Wilderness Act:
http://www.wilderness.org/AboutUs/Zahniser_Bio.cfm?TopLevel=About

Want to learn more about Wilderness areas in your state?
http://www.wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS

Words to Inspire
"Love is a powerful tool, and maybe, just maybe, before the last little town is corrupted and the last of the unroaded and undeveloped wildness is given over to dreams of profit, maybe it will be love, finally, love for the land for its own sake and for what it holds of beauty and joy and spiritual redemption that will make [wilderness] not a battlefield but a revelation."
- T.H. Watkins, Redrock Chronicles: Saving Wild Utah, 2000
More Words to Inspire: http://www.wilderness.org/Library/quotes.cfm