George Wuerthner is an ecologist and writer who has published 38 books on various topics related to environmental and natural history. Among his titles are Welfare Ranching-The Subsidized Destruction of the American West, Wildfire-A Century of Failed Forest Policy, Energy—Overdevelopment and the Delusion of Endless Growth, Keeping the Wild-Against the Domestication of the Earth, Protecting the Wild—Parks, and Wilderness as the Foundation for Conservation, Nevada Mountain Ranges, Alaska Mountain Ranges, California’s Wilderness Areas—Deserts, California Wilderness Areas—Coast and Mountains, Montana’s Magnificent Wilderness, Yellowstone—A Visitor’s Companion, Yellowstone and the Fires of Change, Yosemite—The Grace and the Grandeur, Mount Rainier—A Visitor’s Companion, Texas’s Big Bend Country, The Adirondacks-Forever Wild, Southern Appalachia Country, among others.
He has visited over 400 designated wilderness areas and over 200 national park units.
In the past, he has worked as a cadastral surveyor in Alaska, a river ranger on several wild and scenic rivers in Alaska, a backcountry ranger in the Gates of the Arctic National Park in Alaska, a wilderness guide in Alaska, a natural history guide in Yellowstone National Park, a freelance writer and photographer, a high school science teacher, and more recently ecological projects director for the Foundation for Deep Ecology. He currently is the ED of Public Lands Media.
He has been on the board or science advisor of numerous environmental organizations, including RESTORE the North Woods, Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Association, Park Country Environmental Coalition, Wildlife Conservation Predator Defense, Gallatin Wildlife Association, Western Watersheds Project, Project Coyote, Rewilding Institute, The Wildlands Project, Patagonia Land Trust, The Ecological Citizen, Montana Wilderness Association, New National Parks Campaign, Montana Wild Bison Restoration Council, Friends of Douglas Fir National Monument, Sage Steppe Wild, and others.
The WPLI is an attempt to garner local agreement on the fate of federal BLM and Forest Service Wilderness Study Areas. These federal lands are managed to retain their potential suitability for future designation as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act.
The WPLI is driven by local county commissioners who, after consulting with other citizens, were to come up with agreement or at least recommendations about the fate of these federal WSA lands.
The fatal flaw in Mr. Obermueller’s and the WPLI proposal is that these are public lands that belong to all 330 million Americans, not just the local residents of any particular Wyoming county. The entire WPLI process has left out the opinions, values and interests of the people who own and pay taxes to administer and support the management of these lands.
Beyond the question of fairness and equity about lands that belong to all Americans, there are other justifications for supporting wilderness protection for these lands.
First, at this point in time, only 2.7% of the lower 48 states are protected by the federal wilderness legislation. Even if all WSAs and other suitable qualified lands were given wilderness designation, this would still amount to around 5% of the lower 48 states.
Protecting wildlands is a gesture of humility, generosity and restraint. It means we are providing a small amount of America in an undeveloped condition for present and most importantly future generations of Americans. These are all good conservative attributes that we Americans value.
These lands are also exceptional habitat for many other living things that we share the planet with from grizzlies to Colorado cutthroat trout to bighorn sheep. Setting aside a little bit of Wyoming for these critters is part of what makes Wyoming such a special place to live.
As someone who formerly lived in Wyoming, and regularly returns to visit the state, it is the state’s wildlands that makes Wyoming so special. The WPLI process is an attempt to usurp the democratic process and subverts the interest of the majority of American’s birthright to our public lands.
George Wuerthner is the author of 38 books including Yellowstone: A visitor’s companion, Wildfire: A Century of Failed Forest Policy and Protecting the Wild: Parks and Wilderness The Foundation for Conservation.