The moratorium will extend for 20 years.
Wilderness
Posted inArticles
It’s not the Wild West anymore. Look before you shoot.
Carrying a gun in the backcountry isn’t the issue—responsible use is.
Posted inNovember 28, 2016: A Weird and Perfect Wilderness
Hope in a post-nature society
A writer seeks answers from Lake Powell.
Posted inNovember 28, 2016: A Weird and Perfect Wilderness
How to love a weird and perfect wilderness
A desolate Oregon landscape offers lessons on the modern wild.
Posted inNovember 14, 2016: The Long View
The deeper meaning of trails
Insightful new books in the well-worn genre of trail literature.
Posted inNovember 14, 2016: The Long View
The promise of Alaska’s wilderness
Two novels offer perspectives on the allure of the last frontier.
Posted inNovember 14, 2016: The Long View
Why we don’t mention my great-grandfather’s name
Aaron A. Abeyta on his family’s shadowy past in New Mexico
Posted inArticles
Trekking across Colorado’s fragmented wildernesses
Thru-hiking the Colorado Trail exposes a “wilderness” that is anything but.
Posted inAugust 22, 2016: 100
A visit to the Grand Canyon, without handrails
A wild river is “a necessity of the human spirit.”
Posted inArticles
Biking bill is a smokescreen for opening up wilderness
Are you ready for mechanized vehicles on every wilderness trail in the United States? That’s what you’ll get if a deceptive piece of federal legislation becomes law. Portrayed as a “modest” proposal for mountain bike access, the legislation is a Trojan horse that would throw open all designated wilderness areas to bikes and prevent federal […]
Posted inMay 16, 2016: Grizzly Face-Off
Who’s cutting illegal ski trails in the Santa Fe National Forest?
On the trail of a backcountry criminal with the Forest Service.
Posted inArticles
Why Rep. Rob Bishop’s promises of wilderness ring false
Famed forester Bob Marshall foreshadowed the loss of untouched lands in Utah.
Posted inArticles
In rare bipartisan decision, Senate approves Yakima water projects
Conservation, wilderness and water provisions long in the works were added to the massive energy bill.
Posted inMarch 21, 2016: Making Sense of Malheur
Stop trying to make biking in wilderness happen. It’s not going to happen.
I shouldn’t be writing this, and you shouldn’t be reading it. Far more pressing issues face our public lands. But a vocal minority is drudging up the long-resolved question of mountain biking in wilderness. They have even drafted a bill for somebody to introduce in Congress — the Human-Powered Wildlands Travel Management Act — that […]
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
How the wild Northern Rockies were saved — and who led the way
A new book looks at the ordinary citizens who fought for wilderness designations.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
Latest: New Mexico land deal opens wilderness access
The Sabinoso Wilderness Area was impossible to access for years, thanks to private landowners.
Posted inFebruary 22, 2016: Fractured
Bishop’s ‘Grand Bargain’ in Utah is no deal, say enviros
The much-anticipated land-use plan has ramped up the tensions it promised to defuse.
Posted inArticles
Four charts that show how public land is good for rural areas
A study finds that personal income is rising faster in counties with more public land.
Posted inArticles
Rob Bishop’s long-awaited ‘grand bargain’ for Utah public lands
After decades of stalemate, the new bill gets mixed reactions.
Posted inArticles
In Idaho, rancher buyouts take a big step forward
Idaho’s White Cloud Mountains seem like an unlikely place for the beginning of a positive shift in public-land management. They gleam high and cold above the seemingly endless sagebrush plains of southern Idaho, one of the most conservative states in the West. Yet it was here last year that Republicans worked with environmentalists to plant […]