Advocacy
Effective and strategic advocacy is the bedrock of our efforts to protect public lands.
Working with our community to advocate for the protection of public lands is truly something every member of the Wilderness Workshop Team is doing day in and day out. And we’re in for the long haul – we know that our work is most accurately measured in years, not days or months.
Years of advocacy culminated in designation of the Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument by President Biden.
Think of our advocacy in two broad categories:
– Proactive: we advocate for new land and water protections, such as Wilderness or Wild & Scenic Rivers, and conservation-minded planning documents from our land managers. We achieve these through federal legislation (like the proposed CORE Act), land use plans and administrative actions by federal agencies, and other tools. These new protections protect key wildlife habitat, clean air and water, scenic viewsheds, and a host of other ecological values. Our commitment to building diverse coalitions, relationship-building with elected officials, and long-term vision make this work possible.
– Defensive: when extractive industries or land management agencies propose ecologically damaging projects on public lands we spring into action. Key examples of this work include stopping fossil fuel development and mining; preventing new dams and reservoirs; and ensuring projects that would have a significant, negative impact on our lands, water, wildlife, climate or communities either don’t move forward or are changed to reduce those impacts. Our deep legal and policy expertise, long history of community organizing, and tenacity are key to success.
Save the Homestake Valley Rally, 2021.
Advocacy allows us to protect important places and advance our priorities.
Advocacy takes many forms – some days one staff member is working with a coalition to garner support for legislation while another meets with an agency staffer about an upcoming project while another is taking community members out to a landscape so they can understand firsthand why it is worthy of protection.
Whether you love a particular landscape we’re working to protect or want to help advance our conservation priorities, we’ve got ways for you to get involved! To learn more, reach out.
