Interior Department Initiates Maneuver That Opens Door to Remove Protections on Country’s Wilderness Areas

Washington, D.C. — Today, the Bureau of Land Management initiated the first step of a policy update that is expected to amount to sweeping changes and attempts to strip protection of the country’s remaining natural wilderness areas. The agency will start a 60-day public comment period for the review and revision of policy manuals for management of tens of millions of acres within Arizona, California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Wyoming, that are designated as wilderness, wilderness study areas, and lands with wilderness characteristics. 

Below is a statement from Kara Matsumoto, Senior Policy Director of the Conservation Lands Foundation, which represents a national network of community advocates who are solely focused on the public lands overseen by the Bureau of Land Management, including the National Conservation Lands:

“This maneuver opens the door for an attack on America’s wilderness and is a direct threat to the tools used to make sure the country still has natural places that are undisturbed by development. Under the guise of a routine policy update, the agency is targeting some of the West’s most exceptional landscapes—essential places that safeguard wildlife habitat, support quiet recreation including hunting and fishing, and fuel local rural economies. Once these wild places are opened to development and degraded, they cannot simply be restored. Americans expect leaders to protect our shared heritage, not rewrite the rules to favor short-term exploitation at the expense of our last, best wild places. The Conservation Lands Foundation and our network of 90 Friends groups across the West will be defending our wild places every step of the way.”

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