The Wilderness Society

But it was actually, it is actually in all those different environments it's really the opening of the heart where people actually change something really opens up I I remembered that One time we're giving a retreat for what's called the Green Group.

Those are the CEOs of the national environmental organizations like NRDC and Sierra Club and Wilderness Society and EDF.

And so I was asked to do this.

And I thought... oh, environmentalists, you know, tree huggers, great.

Start speaking up about places, do research online, and maybe pair information that people might not be aware of with your photographs that show these places in ways that they might not be aware of, maybe because they've never visited the place before or maybe just because they haven't seen it through that unique perspective that you have through your eyes.

You can just start doing that, and that's what I did, and what happened from that is I started having environmental groups like The Wilderness Society or the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance or Grand Staircase Escalante Partners, Quiet Parks International, actually come and reach out to me to ask if I could collaborate with them, if they could use-

Mm

... my images for their campaigns, and if I'd be willing to write things from my perspective and experiences in these places.

Lots of groups have been involved with this one.

Wild Montana, the Wilderness Society, TRCP, BHA, Trout Unlimited, uh, many, many more have been working on this for a long time, twenty-year slog.

Representative Zinke had to announce this.

We talked to him just yesterday, in fact.

We've got a lawsuit on our hands.

Two conservation groups are suing the feds over 430 square miles of oil and gas drilling leases in Wyoming and Colorado.

The Wilderness Society and Wilderness Workshop are pushing for the revocation of leases by arguing that federal agencies violated both their own regulations and other environmental laws to prioritize fossil fuel development.

They also say that the energy development could significantly threaten the bags mule deer and sublet pronghorn migration corridors in central Wyoming.

The timber companies were pulling out a Dodge left, right, and center, and it was a very good time through massive public involvement to draw some circles around some areas.

And I do say circles because if you look at the maps that are provided through ONX, the Wilderness Society, Trout Unlimited, in the states that I know of and have personally hunted elk in, if you zoom out to where all the roadless areas are just circles, I can darn sure tell you, I go, "Oh, there's elk there, there's elk there, there's elk there," which I probably shouldn't be telling you.

If we want active forest management, what they're talking about, like pushing back on wildfires and, uh, all the things, we need to demand that that management takes place.

We, the people, have not been active around this to an effective degree, right? To mitigate noxious weeds on public lands, to have controlled burns as part of our yearly cycle, even to get Congress to authorize our taxpayer dollars to mechanically thin on a scale that might make some sort of a difference.

What is fee shifting? Well, it's the common, long-standing practice of having attorney's fees reimbursed after successfully litigating, in these cases, one of the numerous infractions by this administration of natural resource laws, like the Endangered Species Act or the National Environmental Policy Act.

The organizations being targeted by the House Committee include the Alliance for Wild Rockies, Cascadia Wildlands, Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earth Justice, Great Old Broads for Wilderness, High Country Conservation Advocates, Montana Environmental Information Center, Native Ecosystems Council, Natural Resources Defense Council, Oregon Wild, Rocky Mountain Wild, San Juan Citizens Alliance, The Sierra Club, Western Watersheds Project, Wild Earth Guardians, The Wilderness Society, Wilderness Watch, and The Wilderness Workshop.

The Forest Service has announced the closing of 23 research stations.

From Chief Tom Schultz, quote, this announcement reflects our commitment to retain the staff our mission requires while responsibly reducing our facilities cost.

Two environmental groups are suing in federal court in Denver to overturn the June federal oil and gas leases sales in Colorado and in Wyoming.

The Wilderness Workshop and the Wilderness Society argue the U.S. Bureau of Land Management failed to account for vital migration corridors for elk, pronghorn, and mule deer.

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that I'm really, really, really proud of is that we have a conservation coalition in New Mexico that when it comes to big picture issues like public lands, for example, we put aside all of our other differences.

We work with Animal Protection, Voters of New Mexico, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, the Wilderness Society, the Wilderness Alliance, Wildlands Network, Biophilia Foundation.

I mean, I could list 100 of them, Wild Earth Guardians.

You know, we all just unite.