Photo Credit: USDA
Protect public lands – connect vast landscapes where wildlife can roam
Public Lands
Our greatest conservation opportunity is protecting and connecting the West’s vast landscapes where majestic wildlife can roam—from the largest grizzly to the smallest meadow jumping mouse; where birds can soar and sage grouse can strut; where fish thrive in water that is pure and clean; and where people experience the primal power of the wild.
Yet the federal government and corporate interests have other ideas, and are bent on destroying public lands, waters, and wildlife with increased logging, mining, livestock grazing, oil and gas development, motorized use, and even more roads.
Guardians combats this culture of extraction with connection, protection, and healing, deploying strategies from education and restoration to advocacy and litigation to preserve and restore America’s wild places, wild rivers, and wildlife. We think and act at the local, regional, and West-wide levels: from the unparalleled biodiversity of the Greater Gila in New Mexico to the majesty of Glacier National Park, from the mountain sources of rushing rivers along their flow through the Pacific Northwest, we strive for vast, interconnected landscapes teeming with the diversity of life.
The Status of the Grizzly Bear: Has it Really Recovered?
Five leading experts present their findings.
Public Lands Program Work
WildEarth Guardians plants native vegetation along riversides once scarred by livestock grazing, protects wild landscapes from disruptive and damaging motorized off-road vehicles, and much more.
Public Lands in Public Hands
Protecting public lands from agencies, Congress, modern-day robber barons, and everyone else who seeks to privatize them
Rewild Lands and Waters
Removing unneeded roads from public lands, maintaining roads that are still needed, and restoring passage for fish when roads block their spawning grounds
Grazing Permit Retirement
A proven strategy to equitably resolve conflicts between historic uses and modern ecological realities
Moderating Motorized Use
Keeping off-road vehicles and snowmobiles off of fragile landscapes to protect wildlife and water quality
The Greater Gila
Safeguarding the diversity and dynamism of the Greater Gila Bioregion, including working with ranchers to retire grazing allotments and return Mexican wolves to their ancestral homeland
Recent Stories From Public Lands

The doctor is in
Samantha Ruscavage-Barz lays down the law for the Wild as WildEarth Guardians legal director

Big court win opens door to keep coal in the ground
Court orders new look at coal mining, oil and gas drilling on public lands in the Powder River Basin of Montana and Wyoming

The doctor is in
Samantha Ruscavage-Barz lays down the law for the Wild as WildEarth Guardians legal director

The doctor is in
Samantha Ruscavage-Barz lays down the law for the Wild as WildEarth Guardians legal director
Public Lands Press
Climate bill headed to President Biden sacrifices public lands while locking out Indigenous and Frontline communities
Congress allowed the good in Inflation Reduction Act to be watered-down by provisions that fund polluters and expand fossil fuel leasing on public lands
Read more >Large Trees, Bad Projects
Imagine the largest tree you ever saw. Maybe you remember looking up, trying to see all the way to its crown. Maybe you recall wanting to stretch your arms around the tree.
Read more >OSU study lays out vision for ‘rewilding’ of American West
“Rewilding the American West,” a public lands management study led by faculty of Oregon State University’s Department of Forestry, is being widely heralded by environmental and conservation groups.
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