Wilderness Watch is participating in Missoula Gives on May 6 – 7, which is an on-line fundraising event celebrating the work of non-profits. You don’t have to live in Missoula in order to participate, so please consider making a generous donation to protect Wilderness! Since 1989, Wilderness Watch has worked to ensure that Wildernesses remain self-willed landscapes free of human manipulation and control. The Wilderness Act challenges us to refrain from our heavy-handed management tendencies and our inclination to interfere with natural processes. Thanks to you, we have kept the wildness in Wilderness. We must remain vigilant, however. Wilderness remains threatened, even under a new administration. We’re engaged on the following issues (and much more): - The State of Montana is proposing a massive stream poisoning project for the Scapegoat Wilderness. Helicopters, motorboats, and other motorized equipment would also invade the Wilderness. Another proposal would poison Buffalo Creek in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness just outside of Yellowstone National Park.
- The Forest Service wants to turn the Mission Mountains Wilderness into a tree farm by planting thousands of acres of genetically-modified trees. The agency also wants to use human-ignited fire to burn more than 13,000 acres of subalpine forest.
- Tens of thousands of acres in the Gila and Blue Range Wildernesses are threatened by commercial livestock grazing. Native wildlife, including imperiled Mexican Gray Wolves, could also be harmed.
- A massive strip mine is proposed along the border of the Okefenokee Wilderness, which is the second largest Wilderness east of the Mississippi and one of the world’s largest still-intact blackwater swamp ecosystems.
- The future of the Arctic Refuge remains at risk until the Coastal Plain and all wilderness-eligible lands are permanently protected from oil/gas drilling and other development.
During Missoula Gives, please put defending Wilderness at the top of your list. All first-time donors to Wilderness Watch will be matched by a generous member of ours in Alaska! Thank you for your support! Sincerely,
George, Dana, Kevin, Dawn and Brett |
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