Map
Map FAQs
Why is there so much red?
Red shows wilderness areas where no NWSA member is stewarding that wilderness. There are two reasons for all that red — one good news and one not.The good news: We are a brand-new organization; we just started our first membership drive. We are growing fast, and have terrific support, but there will be some inevitable lag as we sign up groups. Not to worry: There is a lot of active stewardship — many great groups are working hard to protect wilderness.
The not-so-good: There are 757 wildernesses out there. Many, many of them don't have any known citizen's group helping care for them. We aim to change that — it's one of the main reasons NWSA exists. But it will take a lot of people working together to color every wilderness on the map green!
What's NWSA about?
The mission of the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance is to develop a growing network of volunteer-based organizations to provide stewardship for America's enduring resource of wilderness. Our vision is to see each wilderness area within the National Wilderness Preservation System adopted by a wilderness stewardship organization dedicated to protecting and nurturing the area’s character and values.Look at all that red. Think what a gift to the future it would be if all those areas of precious wilderness resource were colored green. That's what NWSA is about!
Who else supports NWSA?
First, our thanks to the four agencies who were charged by the Wilderness Act to preserve and protect our wilderness heritage: the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Forest Service, and the National Park System. Together, they manage the National Wilderness Preservation System. It's a big job, especially in an era of tightened resources. All four agencies have enthusiastically welcomed the support of NWSA, and aided us in various ways.NWSA's vision has inspired many organizations. Their support for the cause of wilderness has been critical, sometimes from long before the 1964 Wilderness Act. We could put them in the dialog box for every American wilderness, but it would get a bit crowded, so we'll just list them here as they become NWSA Members:
Where did you get the data for this map?
We owe big thanks to wilderness.net http://wilderness.net/index.cfm?fuse=NWPS who created and maintain the map that is the base for ours. Theirs shows which agency is charged with the care of each wilderness, ours shows the stewardship status of each wilderness, and connects you with NWSA stewards.How does the Wilderness Act fit in with NWSA?
Stop and think about it — really think about it for a moment! — what an astonishing thing we did, almost 50 years ago now. We Americans have set aside almost 110,000,000 acres of our country to preserve as wilderness. Leaving out the (huge!) magnificence of Alaskan wilderness for a moment, we have said that we will guard an area nearly the size of Minnesota "to secure for the American people of present and future generations the benefits of an enduring resource of wilderness" — those are the words of the 1964 Wilderness Act.The words of the Act are disguised in legal language, as they have to be, but listen for the passion behind them: wilderness areas "shall be administered for the use and enjoyment of the American people in such manner as will leave them unimpaired for future use and enjoyment as wilderness…"
This is where NWSA comes in. The Wilderness Act says we will "provide for the protection of these areas, the preservation of their wilderness character, and for the gathering and dissemination of information regarding their use and enjoyment as wilderness…" Wilderness got along nicely on its own for millennia, but under today's conditions, without active protection and repair (if only because we are allowed to visit, and millions of us do), many of our wild places can't hold their own. The members of NWSA, with the National Wilderness Protection System's agencies and many others, work to preserve and protect.
I'm just one person. Can I color a wilderness green?
Absolutely, but not by yourself — NWSA is a team effort!- You can join a stewardship group. The Map will help you find the ones nearest you.
- You can support NWSA with your membership.
- Do you have skills that can help our work? Out in the field, we need "wilderness skills," but a national organization needs writers and editors, fundraisers, programmers, researchers — all kinds of people with skills and a passion to protect our wilderness heritage.
- If there is no NWSA group in the wilderness areas near you, and if all the many conditions exist which might allow a group to start, we'll work with you to help start a new group. But be warned — it is more work than you can imagine. (Ask us how many hours a year we volunteer for this cause we believe in!)