Dear Friends,

The next few years will be an enormous challenge for Wilderness and all its wild critters. Members of Congress who have tried for years to weaken the Wilderness Act are now in power—like Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Utah Senator Mike Lee, who will both lead the committee overseeing our public lands. There will be no backstop in the White House.

To be sure, the federal agencies under both Democrat and Republican administrations have tried to chip away at the Wilderness Act, but we’ve thwarted most of their attacks. I’d be lying if I didn’t say it feels more ominous now, and that the Wilderness Act itself is at risk.

The forces aligned against Wilderness are poised to pounce, while our allies in Congress and much of the conservation community are distracted, discouraged, and disempowered. Those who worked so hard to pass the Wilderness Act would be shocked by the present moment—when we could lose the Wilderness Act entirely or see wilderness designation rendered meaningless by legislative exceptions.

We’re not willing to let that happen. We’re ready for the fight, and we’re not backing down—and we know that you won’t either. We need your help today to be able to continue defending these extraordinary places, their wildlife, and the Wilderness Act itself!

Over 90 percent of our funding comes from people like you, so please give as generously as you can.

Increasingly, we’re seeing that many Wilderness bills in Congress do more harm than good—bills to blast open every Wilderness to mountain bikes, to legalize fixed climbing anchors, to repeal protections for all Wildernesses within 100 miles of the southern border, and to allow unlimited helicopter and other motorized incursions by state fish and game departments.

Congress isn’t the only concern, though. Before leaving the stage, current Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has dealt a horrific blow to the Izembek Wilderness in Alaska by proposing a land exchange so an 11-mile road could be built through its world-renowned wetlands, cutting the 308,000-acre Wilderness in two. Worse yet, she justifies the road by claiming more access will benefit subsistence users, a rationale any future Interior secretary could use to build roads through any Wilderness, national park, or wildlife refuge in Alaska. Every conservation unit in Alaska—more than 100 million acres—is now on the chopping block thanks to her careless action. We’ve called on you to help stop this disastrous land exchange, but it will not be easy.