A History of Wilderness Organizing

Kettle Range Conservation Group organized wilderness campaigns from 1976 to 1984 and again from 1995 to 2019. This work continues today, though in a more realistic process that in-part recognizes to reach the goal of permanent Wilderness without a congressional champion this cause, and no matter how much hard work dedicated activists invest and have invested all these many years little more than short-term objectives have been realized.

The essence of wilderness is real, unvarnished Nature, naturally evolving, free flowing, clean and safe. Its water & air, wildlife sanctuary and solitude for the human spirit is rare, vintage and unique in every way.

There is no other law in America that protects free-willed nature — evolving as it always has — as does The Wilderness Act. Only Congress can designate it.

Download the Washington State Wilderness Act of 1984 (PDF)

For all of human and biological history, wilderness has been the canvass upon which all life was sketched. Now in the 21st Century that canvass is tattered and scattered in pieces of intact forest, sagebrush prairie, pristine waterways and snowcapped mountains. Little more than 2% of the continental United States is designated as Wilderness.

Wilderness is the last refuge for Canada lynx, gray wolf, bear, elk, mountain caribou, fisher, native trout, salmon, amphibians and so many other terrestrial and aquatic species. Numerous scientific studies demonstrate the critical importance of wild and natural landscapes to the health of endangered species. Wilderness is a life raft for wildlife – it is their escape.

Pressures on our natural resources are steadily growing as population is rapidly doubling and development spreads across the landscape. Wild, natural areas are becoming increasingly rare, so we must keep the ones we have intact today for the benefit of our health and the health of our children.

Less than 3% of the Colville National Forest (CNF) is designated Wilderness: 1)Salmo Priest Wilderness in eastern CNF and 2) a small slice of the Pasayten Wilderness — roughly north to south: Rock Mountain, Windy Peak and Hickey Hump). Across Washington, 96% of congressionally designated Wilderness Areas are in the Olympia Peninsula and Cascade mountains.

CNF wildernesses represent less than 1% of the total in Washington state, despite its ecological significance, low human population density and amazing biodiversity. From sagebrush grasslands and ponderosa pine lowlands to aspen, spruce/fir and whitebark pine highlands, the Kettle River Mountains, Midway Mountains and eastern Cascade Mountains, to verdant lush cedar-hemlock forests in Selkirk Mountain interior rainforest. This is the home to grizzly bear, gray wolf, Canada lynx and many sensitive plants. There are 20 unprotected inventoried roadless areas that meet criteria under the Wilderness Act for possible future designation.

After nearly 5 decades of community organizing to get Wilderness designated in the Okanogan Highlands, Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains, one outstanding reason IS for lack of a congressional champion. Though we have tried and failed many times over to achieve congressional wilderness protection for deserving wildlands in the Colville and Okanogan National Forest, it’s not for lack of trying. All of the compelling reasons to protect Public Lands wilderness are embodied in these lands. All the many decades of community organizing, the coalitions, etc. have failed most likely because of a few hysterical opponents who see Wilderness as being a “liberal” enterprise. How sad it is, to pass up opportunity after opportunity for a future without fighting over wildlands, just because of few loud opponents.

If Wilderness was a threat as claimed by a few, an untold risk to rural residents, then please, why does its existence today and for all of history, however “unprotected” that may be, not harmed anybody? Thank our lucky stars these wild places still remain today despite all of the nefarious efforts to despoil them.