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- Alistair Hall Editor Reading Hazel Phillip's story on Te Tatau Pounamu wilderness area (Tongariro's Bermuda Triangle, p44), it's pleasing to see that even in this, one of the busiest [...]

The article presents information on the availability of higher number of jobs due to the construction procedures in the wilderness areas. It informs that the U.S. Congress is aiming in increasing more number of jobs. It states that the Olympic National Forest in Washington is a part of the natural resources of the nation. It mentions that the goal of the Skokomish Watershed Action Team (SWAT), headed by Mike Anderson of The Wilderness Society, is to heal the Skokomish watershed from mountain top to saltwater. According to a study by economist Joe Kerkvliet, 69 direct jobs and 79 indirect jobs have been created due to an increase in the high value of timber.

The article presents information on several places which are popular as wilderness regions. It mentions Alaska as a place of wilderness refuge and states that the refuge is a place in Alaska where scientists work for climate change and wilderness temperature. The forests of the northern Rockies in Idaho have mountain slopes covered with Douglas fir and are habitat for woodpeckers and owls. It states that New Jersey has natural heritage and is a populated state in the Mid-Atlantic region. It is stated that the Wilderness Society is running a campaign for the wildlife conservation.

The article presents information on the Owyhee Canyonland in Idaho. It informs that Owyhee Canyon is added to the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS) from the 2009 Omnibus Public Lands Bill and is also known as Owyhee Uplands Back Country Byway. It mentions that the Canyon is located at the 2372 feet along the Snake River to views of South Mountain at 7802 feet. It suggests that for hike jumps, Pleasant Valley Creek, Deep Creek, and Shoofly Creek are the best options available in the Canyon. It also mentions the websites for further information about the place.

The article presents information on the conservation of wilderness and forests in the public lands. Wendy Loya, ecologist for The Wilderness Society in the U.S., states that the most effective and least expensive method to save wildlife is to keep the public lands with wildlife. According to a study by economist Ann Ingerson, the reserved lands, including designated wilderness areas and national parks has the highest carbon content. Beverly Law, a professor of global change and forest science at Oregon State University, states that the forests which are more than 150 years old release more carbon than they take from the atmosphere. It is stated that the carbon is stored in the trunk, branches and roots of the trees.

Several photographs of wilderness areas including Gold Butte in Las Vegas, Hidden Gems in Western Colorado, and San Gabriel Mountains In Los Angeles, California, are presented.

The article presents information on the initiatives taken by the government and Wilderness Society of the U.S. for wildlife conservation and wilderness areas. It informs that an Owyhee group is formed for wilderness and ended with the release of the Omnibus Public Lands Management Act by the U.S. President, Barack Obama. Craig Allin, a scholar of wilderness believes that this act offers an opportunity for legislation for wilderness. It is stated that several legislatives including the Blackfoot-Clearwater, the Beaverhead-Deerlodge, and the Three Rivers Challenge have been passed by Montana Senator, Jon Tester.

The article offers information about the various places that the U.S. Congress proposes to add to the National Wilderness Preservation System. Beauty Mountain in California's Riverside County is one the areas that is proposed for permanent protection. A bill to be introduced soon is expected to contain more than 190,000 acres of wilderness, including winding canyons, Joshua tree forests, rugged desert landscapes, steep mountains, and other features. The Red Rock Wilderness Act would designate 9.5 million acres of public lands in southern Utah's redrock country. Another bill would add 1,000 acres of Arapaho-Roosevelt National Forest to the Indian Peaks Wilderness.

The article discusses the effects of global warming on wilderness. The Wilderness Waterway at the Everglades National Park in Florida is about three feet above sea level, and thermal expansion of oceans due to global warming could raise water levels several feet by the end of the century. Scientists have discovered that the Joshua tree is declining in Malpais Mesa Wilderness. Jerry Franklin, professor of ecosystem science at the University of Washington, reports that wilderness areas could help forestall global warming by sequestration of carbon and diminishing greenhouse gases.

The article informs about the Wilderness Society's new Southwest office in Albuquerque, which covers Arizona and New Mexico. Jerry Greenberg, vice president of regional conservation, reports that land conservation campaigns have accelerated in both states and the focus of the group will be the established range of public lands issues including wilderness, parks and wildlife refuges, fire and forest management and the growth and protection of national monuments within the National Landscape Conservation System.

The article focuses on the protection of Adobe Town Wilderness of Wyoming. It is informed that not only oil and gas industry but off-road vehicles are also creating threat to wilderness area quality. But most of the oil and gas drilling activities in the region are being carried out under the tutelage of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM). According to Ann Morgon, head of BLM state offices in Colorado and Nevada, BLM is suffering from short of funds to manage its resources. BLM is giving most of the land on lease for the purpose of drilling.

This article presents information on the National Landscape Conservation System (NLCS) of the United States. Encompassing 26 million acres of the West overseen by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, the NLCS was established five years ago to protect some of the America's lesser known crown jewels. The system contains a diverse collection of national conservation areas, national monuments, wild and scenic rivers, national scenic and historical trails and wilderness areas. Like the National Park System, the NLCS protects outstanding natural and cultural resources, but it also protects the wild and expansive landscapes around the landmarks. According to Jill Ozarski, program associate in The Wilderness Society's Four Corners office, the original vision was to protect entire landscapes, not just individual historic or archaeological sites. The system protects the places where the history of the West is still written on the land. Other jewels in the NLCS treasure chest include Colorado's Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, featuring the highest concentration of ancestral sites anywhere in the U.S.

This article reports on the declaration of the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of the United States that the top priority of the system is wildlife conservation. The 1997 act required each refuge of the country to create a comprehensive conservation plan (CCP) to determine management priorities for the next 15 years. National wildlife refuges are increasingly popular places for those who enjoy birding and other forms of recreation. Bill Reffalt, who played a major role in shaping the 1997 proposal before retiring from The Wilderness Society recalled that they felt strongly that this was a latent need. According to Reffalt, who was director of the Refuge System under President Jimmy Carter, the System won't be a system until it is planned and operated as such. Another vital CCP component is a recommendation identifying lands pristine enough to warrant addition to the National Wilderness Preservation System and thus permanent protection. According to Leslie Catherwood, who oversees wildlife refuge work for the Wilderness Society, the CCPs have tremendous potential to improve wildlife protection across the country.

The article reports on a proposal made by Plum Creek Timber Co. of Seattle for the development of picturesque Moosehead Lake area in west-central Maine. The scope of the Plum Creek proposal is unprecedented. The plan, submitted to the state of Maine in April 2005 would remake an area running about 46 miles east to west and 34 miles north to south. The plan also called for a 30-year no-development zone of 382,000 forested acres, permanent protection of 180 miles of waterfront and easements on 55.5 miles of hiking trails and 71.3 miles of snowmobiling trails. Plum Creek officials claimed that it was the largest voluntary conservation proposal ever offered by a single landowner, with the most restrictive cap on growth ever proposed in the unincorporated forestland of Maine. Environmental writers and organizations around the state were quick to point out that much of the land in Plum Creek's conservation package turns out to be slated for protection already as wetlands or is designated as "remote" ponds and thus conserved by state statute. According to Jeremy Sheaffer, the Wilderness Society's Maine projects director, Maine law intends that a development such as Plum Creek's proposal be offset with permanent conservation to strike a publicly beneficial balance.

The article reports that Teshekpuk Lake, the third-largest in Alaska is a globally significant summer destination for yellow-billed loons, spectacled eiders, tundra swans and a variety of geese. It is located at 150 miles west of the Arctic Refuge. The lake is part of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. In 1998, when the administration opened 87 percent of the 4.6 million-acre northeastern portion to oil and gas development, Teshekpuk and adjoining acreage were put off-limits in deference to the biological and cultural importance of the area. But in the January 2005 the U.S. Bureau of Land Management finalized a plan to open 100 percent of the area to oil and gas leasing. It further reports that there are four million acres of inventoried roadless lands in the 19 national forests of Oregon and Washington. The Wilderness Society is working closely with the U.S. Forest Service to maintain protection for these areas. The Forest Service also wants to reduce roadless totals in eastern Oregon's Malheur, Wallowa-Whitman and Umatilla National Forests.

The article presents information related to the wildlife conservation in various states of the U.S. Soon there could be more than 300,000 acres of significant new wilderness areas in central Idaho's Boulder and White Cloud Mountains. These two ranges stretch 40 miles from Ketchum to the Salmon River, embracing eight free-flowing rivers and their tributaries. The area provides habitat for salmon, steelhead, bull trout, elk, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, wolves, black bears, and eagles. Alaska is home to two biggest national forests--and both face very big problems. Chugach National Forest, south of Anchorage, is the wildest of the 155 national forests, 98 percent of its 5.5 million acres are road-free. But that is likely to change. A management plan that was finalized over the summer increases the risks facing places such as the Kenai Peninsula and the Copper River Delta. Road building, expanded snowmobile and helicopter access, and powerline construction are likely. In the country's largest national forest, the Tongass, nine million acres are now at greater risk due to the Bush administration's decision not to implement the Roadless Area Conservation Rule there, and in July the U.S. Forest Service approved the sale of more than 650 acres of pristine coastal rainforest.

Several photographs of birds related to the birds conservation are presented. One photograph features Wyoming's Upper Green River Valley but expanding gas development threatens to destroy large stretches of it. An another photograph shows the rare spectacled eider (Somateria fischeri) which is one of the many migratory species that depend on the globally unique habitat at Teshekpuk Lake inside the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska along Alaska's western Arctic coast. An another photograph shows the Oconee National Forest in central Georgia which is important to the American swallow-tailed kite (Elanoidus forficatus), a graceful flyer whose forested habitat in the Southeast, disappearing at a rapid rate. The Oconee and neighboring wildlands also provide vital habitat for black bear and other species, but proposed logging and other development threaten these lands.

Presents a photo essay depicting several places recommended by the Wilderness Society to be included in the National Wilderness Preservation System of the U.S. Coastal plain in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska; Area in the White Mountains in California; Skykomish River Valley in western Washington's Cascade Mountains.

Presents several wilderness areas in the U.S. Description of wildlife places; Enforcement of wildlife system rehabilitation by the government; Frequency of human visits.

Focuses on a grassroots campaign to save New Mexico's biodiversity. Distinctive ecological regions of the Great Plains, Chihuahuan Desert, Colorado Plateau and Rocky Mountains; New Mexico Wilderness Alliance's efforts to preserve the Guadalupe Escarpment; Preservation concepts of United States Forest Service ranger Aldo Leopold.

Focuses on a major threat to wilderness areas in the United States. Proliferation of dirt bikes and other off-road vehicles; Damage caused by the machines to the public lands and to wildlife; Battle over undeveloped public lands that have not been protected by inclusion in the National Wilderness Preservation System. INSET: 65 YEARS LATER, VEHICLES STILL A MAJOR PROBLEM.

Focuses on conservationists' efforts to protect public lands in Alaska. Vulnerability of Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge to development and industrialization; Increased pressures on wilderness areas; Decline of essence of wilderness.

Focuses on the use of the Land and Water Conservation Fund in saving wilderness in the United States. Impact of the grants made by the federal government to encourage railroad development on Cascade forests; Purchase and transfer of private lands to federal, state and local land managers; Appropriation of money for specific land acquisitions. INSET: LWCF Confers Backyard Benefits..

Focuses on the efforts to protect the wilderness areas in Utah. Details of the National Wilderness Preservation System in the area; Creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument to fully conserve the wilderness; Legislations passed to support the conservation efforts of the Wilderness Society.

Focuses on the role of The Wilderness Society in wilderness and wildlife conservation in the United States. Endorsement of forest management plan for sustainable logging; Protection of roadless areas; Maintenance of the ecological integrity of national parks and wilderness areas; Allocation of adequate funds for wilderness conservation programs.

The article presents the author's views on the forests, landscapes and wildlife of Seneca Creek, West Virginia. For hikers, horseback riders and hunters, the highest mountain peak of West Virginia, Spruce knob, is of great attraction. Seneca Creek houses various animals including, black bears, bobcats, whitetail deers, wild turkeys and others. Seneca Creek is the largest area which is not yet considered for protection by the U.S. National Wilderness Preservation System.

The article presents information on the travel made by U.S. disabled veterans in the wilderness in Idaho. The wilderness helped the veterans to vent out depression by rebuilding their lives far from the hospitals. Retired major, Anthony Smith lost his arm, a kidney and a part of his hearing and eyesight in the Iraq war. Smith came with his wife to enjoy the Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness at Sun Valley. Wilderness at Idaho offers adaptive ski lessons, rock climbing, paragliding outings and four to six day raft trips to veterans. Executive Director of the Wilderness Society, Tom Iselin told that the wilderness can help people reestablish their old life who were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The article reports that at the base of Squaretop Mountain, on the top of Guanella Pass in central Colorado, Toni Metcalf is about to learn her first lesson in wilderness ethics. She is preparing to climb 13,000-foot peak for the first time in her life. She is encouraged by Michael Richardson, program director of the James P. Beckwourth Outdoor Education Center, a peer mentoring and education program that takes Denver youth on wilderness adventures. Richardson has led the Beckwourth youth program since its inception in 1998, and this tough-love approach is part of the lesson he teaches Denver's youth. Through adventures like this climb, the program, which is free to children aged 8 to 18 teaches urban kids to appreciate wilderness and explore their capacities as individuals and as members of a team. Richardson, the first African-American to ascend all 54 of Colorado's 14,000-foot peaks is equally impressive as an outdoor role model. He is fit, clean-cut and well-spoken, with a soft baritone and a hard edge of determination. INSET: Untitled.

The article presents information on the history of the glorious 50 years of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. It informs that biologist Olaus Murie, was sent to Alaska in the year 1920 to conduct a study of the caribou herds. It states that Olaus was the director of the U.S. Wilderness Society in the year 1956. It states that with the approval of the Alaska Lands Act in the year 1980, the land was renamed as Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is stated that since the year 1987, the place has been under a debate over whether its a biological heart, the coastal plain and oil and gas field.

The article informs about the protection of the Wyoming Range, which contains over 700,000 acres of wildlife habitat, from oil and gas drilling. Energy development in these mountains are a bad step. Even from a strictly economic standpoint, drilling would be ill-advised. The Wyoming Range helps support an emerging diversified economy centered on tourism and recreation. Hundreds of jobs depend directly on the Bridger-Teton's wildlife, and travel revenue in three surrounding counties. Local landowners, outfitters, sportsmen, conservationists, and others have come together to urge elected officials to introduce legislation in the Congress prohibiting new federal oil and gas leasing in the Wyoming Range while promoting efforts to voluntarily retire existing, non-producing leases.

The article presents information on the initiative of U.S. Senator Ted Stevens, a Republican from Alaska, to put a road through wilderness in Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, located along the Alaska Peninsula. Stevens continues to press Congress to pass legislation that would put the road. Izembek is critically important to a variety of migratory birds, including emperor geese, Taverner's cackling geese, rock sandpipers, dunlins, Pacific black brant, and Steller's eiders. Ten years ago Stevens began a campaign to persuade Congress to build a road that King Cove's 800 residents could use to reach an airport and then fly to an advanced hospital. He is now backed by his fellow senator Lisa Murkowski.

The article informs about the achievements of the Wilderness Society over the past year in the U.S. It played a leading role in the creation of wilderness areas in four states, California, Nevada, Vermont and New Hampshire, permanently protecting 910,000 acres. It was successful in fending off the U.S. Congress's attempts to authorize oil drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain. A federal judge rejected the U.S. President George W. Bush administration's rewrite of the Roadless Area Conservation Rule and reinstated the original version, protecting 49 million roadless acres in its nationals. It also protected 9 million roadless acres in Alaska's Tongass National Forest through a court settlement.

The article presents information on accommodation and recreational facilities for visitors in Seneca Creek, West Virginia. One can easily obtain tracking maps and information on roads, recreational and historical regions, restrooms, bookstores and water fountains. Backpack camping and car camping are free. Mid-January to March is the best time for the visitors who are interested in skiing. Different tracking programs are available for kids as well as for adults for one, two and three days. For birdwatchers, anglers and campers many species of wildlife can be found.

The article presents the author's accounts of his journey to six wilderness areas in the Western U.S. The author traveled across western part of the country with small brown pottery jar of ashes of an outdoor educator. The educator wanted her ashes to be scattered in her favorite places. Some of the places that the author visited include, Idaho's Sawtooth Mountains, Wyoming's Absaroka Range, northern range of Yellowstone National Park, and the Beartooth Mountains of Montana.

The article presents information on a campaign to protect the forest land and wildlife in Mahoosucs region of western Maine and northeastern New Hampshire. The area covers lakes, rivers, and forest and provides natural habitat to bald eagles, osprey, pine marten, and many other species. Unfortunately, due to the attack of several timber companies, 80 percent of the region is under the threat of logging. The Wilderness Society aims to conserve the wildlife and land by supporting community volunteers and local organizations such as the Mahoosuc Land Trust, the Androscoggin River Watershed Council, and the Northern White Mountains Chamber of Commerce.

The article presents information on a legislative bill that will be presented in the U.S. Congress to create new wilderness area in central Idaho's Boulder and White Cloud Mountain regions. The two mountain ranges are stretched over 40 miles from Ketchum to the Salmon River and provides habitat for salmon, bull trout, mountain goats, bighorn sheep, wolves, black bears, and eagles. Several efforts to protect the region began more than 20 years ago. However, U.S. Congressman, Mike Simpson introduced several measures to protect the area along with public land provisions like permanent closure of motorized trail that runs across the width of these mountains.

The article presents information on the achievements of the Wilderness Society related to the conservation of wilderness area and wildlife in the United States. Members of the Wilderness Society developed a $57 million Forest Legacy Program to protect the land in the Adirondack, Virginia's New River corridor, Maine's western mountains and 14 other natural spots of eastern forests. They also helped in preventing oil drilling at the Carrizo Plain National Monument in central California. The members collaborated with small business owners in Vermont and opened a gallery to promote forest products made in sustainable fashion.

The article reports on paying tribute to those citizens who have gone above and beyond in their efforts to protect the wildlands and wildlife of the United States. Recently retired U.S. Senator Ernest Hollings of South Carolina received the Ansel Adams Award, which goes to an elected or appointed official who has made enduring contributions to the stewardship of America's natural treasures. Senator Hollings has created a wonderful legacy. The Robert Marshall Award is The Wilderness Society's highest honor. In February 2005 it was won by long-time conservation leader John H. Adams, founder and president of the Natural Resources Defense Council. Andrea Mead Lawrence of Mammoth Lakes, best known as a two-time Olympic skiing gold medalist, has invested more than 30 years in helping protect the wild lands of the Eastern Sierra. She founded Friends of Mammoth, the Sierra Nevada Alliance, and, more recently, the Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers. The Nevada heroes include John Hiatt, who chairs the Board of Trustees for the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coalition, which he helped create, and has been conservation chair of Red Rock Audubon for 20 years.

The article reports on recent developments and achievements made by the Americans in developing wilderness area of the United States. Last year has been very challenging for conservationists, with both the U.S. Congress and the President pushing for more development across some of the Americans' most cherished landscapes. The support provided by members of "The Wilderness Society," along with the capable work has helped to produce a number of significant achievements. According to the author they have helped convince the Congress to provide funds to protect lands in Colorado's White River National Forest and in the San Luis Valley, site of a new national wildlife refuge. The Congress created 786,000 acres of new wilderness areas in Lincoln County, north of Las Vegas. After a two-year debate, federal land managers agreed to increase protection of potential wilderness areas in Arizona's five national monuments. It also discusses a plan for Tongass National Forest in Alaska. The plan is targeted to prevent excessive logging, especially in roadless areas of the United States.

The article focuses on the wilderness adventures. The modern person tends to live a life out of balance with what his spirit needs. The singular hallmark of American society is that everyone is in a rush. To be successful in America is to create an environment for yourself that is borderline unmanageable. Drive-by wilderness adventures are a form of make-believe. The places the author hikes are Potemkin wildernesses, thin stretches of woods, protected by national and state governments, that to a remarkable degree offer the illusion that one is not immersed in a metropolitan region with upwards of six million people. It is hard not to have a love-hate relationship with such places. The wilderness in the Potomac Gorge is a bit like a creature in a zoo. It's wilderness in captivity. But at the same time, one can cherish these woods, for they're a good place to think. They detoxify the soul, clean out the brain, open up the imagination. Maybe it's something in that tree-scrubbed air, or maybe it's just the endorphin rush from working up a sweat with a fast-paced ramble.

Discusses the accomplishments of the Wilderness Society in the U.S. in 2003. Mobilization that led to the defeat on the U.S. Senate of an amendment authorizing oil drilling on a sanctuary of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; Partnership with several groups in souther Nevada to help pass a bill designating a specific number of wilderness areas; Effort to dissuade DuPont to start a titanium dioxide mining operation along the eastern border of Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge.

Focuses on the tour of the Toklat River in Denali National Park, Alaska. Presence of animals footprints; Indication of caribou animal gestures; Appreciation of the wilderness.

Focuses on author's commitment to wilderness preservation. Rise in global average temperatures; Anticipation of floods of human environmental refugees; Embryonic beginnings of the wilderness movement.

Focuses on 'network of wildlands' concept by the Wilderness Society. Goal of linking vast Alaskan landscapes to the most intimate urban greenspace in the United States; Growth of the National Wilderness Preservation System; Wilderness Society economists' creation of workshops in rural communities to help business people.

Focuses on United States-based conservation group Wilderness Society's introduction of the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative in the Northern Rockies region. Creation of a corridor of protected wildlands from Yellowstone to the Mackenzie Mountains; Transformation of isolated wilderness islands into a healthy wilderness system; Major obstacles to society's plan.