Defending Wilderness in Our Parks

Press Release

Interior Order Weakens Wilderness Stewardship of up to 80% of National Park Service Lands

“This administration’s order threatens to upend the bipartisan tradition of protecting wilderness areas at the highest level.“ - NPCA President and CEO Tiernan Sittenfeld 

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The Trump administration is currently reviewing wilderness protections across public lands, including within the National Park Service. NPS Directors Order 41 (DO 41), which guides how the National Park Service categorizes and manages wilderness land across millions of acres, is under review.

This review threatens to throw out conservation as we know it by upending 50 years of established wilderness stewardship in our national parks and public lands.

More than 80% of Park Service land would be impacted by efforts to weaken Director’s Order 41, including more than 70 million acres managed as wilderness because National Park Service experts have determined these places are critical to protect for wildlife, clean water, healthy ecosystems, and more.

Why Wilderness Matters and What is At Risk

Much of what people love about visiting national parks, whether it’s the views, the quiet, or just getting away from it all, depends on wilderness areas remaining protected.

Wilderness areas within our national parks protect some of the most intact landscapes left in the country, creating large, connected stretches of land so wildlife, clean water, and healthy ecosystems can thrive.

New roads and development in these areas would push wildlife out of some of the last places they have left to roam undisturbed, like black bears in the Great Smoky Mountains or desert bighorn sheep in Death Valley. Weakening protections could open these lands to commercial development, new roads, more vehicles in sensitive areas, and even resource extraction. Once a wilderness area is paved over or built upon, the damage is permanent. There’s no going back to what these places used to be.

Protecting Landscapes for Future Generations

Blog Post

Selling Off and Selling Out

Three main patterns by the federal government are chipping away at national parks and public lands. Our experts break them down. 

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NPCA opposes this review and any effort to weaken wilderness protections in our national parks or on the surrounding public lands that sustain them.

NPCA has been working for decades alongside National Park Service experts to understand the spectacular natural, recreational, and spiritual value wilderness areas provide Americans and the thoughtful care required to manage wilderness areas so they can be preserved unimpaired for future generations. And, as the fearless and outspoken defender of the parks, we raise the alarm when protections under DO 41 are at risk.

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