1967 Aspen Wilderness Workshop Founded
1975 Maroon Valley Bus Service – Lobbied for the service to limit private vehicles in the Maroon Valley and provided the first interpretive guides on buses.
1977 Hunter Creek Diversion – Gathered 2,700 signatures to stop road-building for tunnel project, preserving wilderness eligibility.
1979 Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness – A 10-year campaign culminated in the permanent protection of this 82,000-acre area.
1980 Maroon Bells-Snowmass, Collegiate Peaks & Raggeds – Led the local campaign to more than double the size of the Maroon Bells-Snowmass and to establish two new wilderness areas – over 330,000 acres in all.
1984 Wilderness Monitoring – Partnered with Aspen Ranger District to launch trail and campsite monitoring program; later added air, water and invasive-weed protocols.
1993 Spruce Creek Addition – Dogged advocacy finally secured protection for this 8,000-acre jewel that was left out of the original 1979 Hunter-Fryingpan Wilderness.
1996 Snowmass Creek Instream Flow – Won a pivotal Colorado Supreme Court ruling establishing a compromise that balances ecosystem needs and human demand.
2002 Wilderness Inventories – Our extensive inventories at the beginning of the White River National Forest’s Forest Plan Plan Revision teed up 82,000 acres for future Wilderness designation.
2007 Hidden Gems Campaign Launches – Efforts begin to protect 350,000 acres of the White River National Forest, the Gunnison National Forest, and nearby Bureau of Land Management lands with Wilderness designation.
2009 Thompson Divide Coalition (TDC) Forms – WW is a founding member of TDC, formed to secure permanent protection from oil and gas development of public lands in the Thompson Divide area.
2011 White River National Forest Travel Plan – Capping a 15-year effort, obtained a more wildlife and watershed-friendly plan governing all roads and trails in the Forest.
2011 Oil Shale Lawsuit – Helped force a legal settlement with Dept. of Interior to revisit oil shale approvals; Colorado acreage subsequently reduced from 350,000 acres to 35,000 acres.
2012 Victory for the Roan Plateau – Judge invalidates Bush-era management plan that opened the entire Plateau to leasing based on a legal challenge by WW and partners.
2013 BLM Admits Leases are Illegal – After years of legal advocacy, BLM reconsiders its decision to sell 65 oil and gas leases on the White River National Forest.
2015 New Oil and Gas Plan – After a decade-long WW campaign, the Forest Service closes most of the White River National Forest to future oil and gas leasing, including much of the Thompson Divide.
2016 Illegal leases canceled – The BLM canceled 25 illegally-issued oil and gas leases in the Thompson Divide.
2018 Protected from Damsn – The City of Aspen agrees to move and downsize its current water rights to build dams on Castle and Maroon Creeks, guaranteeing that no dams will be built.
2018 Defiende Program Launched – WW launches Defiende Nuestra Tierra (Defende Our Land) to better connect with the region’s Latinx community.
2019 CORE Act – Colorado Outdoor Recreation and Economy (CORE) Act is first introduced, which would protect our 400,000 of public lands throughout Colorado, including 225,000 acres in the Thompson Divide.
2020 Homestake Valley – WW rallies community members to oppose drilling test wells to study the feasibility of a new dam and reservoir (for Front Range cities) in the Homestake Valley.
2020 Colorado Wildlands Project – Created in strategic partnership with the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (SUWA), the Wildlands Project is launched. It focuses on the conservation of BLM lands in Western Colorado.
2021 Crystal River Wild & Scenic – The WW team brings new momentum and expertise to community-driven efforts to protect the Crystal River with federal Wild and Scenic River designation.
2022 New National Monument – President Biden designates the 53,800-acre Camp Hale-Continental Divide National Monument, giving meaningful protections to wildlife and wildlands in Camp Hale and the Tenmile Range.
