The Wilderness Society’s mission is to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. They contribute to better protection, stewardship and restoration of our public lands, preserving our rich natural legacy for current and future generations.

They are a leading American conservation organization working to protect our nation’s shared wildlands. From well-known icons to hidden gems, protected wildlands give us:

• Clean air and water,
• Abundant wildlife,
• Havens for recreation, solitude and learning,
• Important sources of renewable energy,
• Vital natural resources that must be managed wisely, and
• A foundation for a healthy planet.

The Wilderness Society protects the places you care about. They are spread across the US passionately believing that public lands are the best expression of what it is to be an American. Since 1935, they’ve led the effort to protect 109 million acres of wilderness in 44 states, garnering more than 700,000 supporters along the way. They have been at the forefront of nearly every major public lands victory.

Our wild…

The story of The Wilderness Society’s conception has been told different ways, but all versions involve a heated roadside discussion centered on the novel idea of protecting wild places from the growing threat of “recreational motoring” and its associated roads.

In Bernard and Miriam Frank’s car on that October Friday were Benton MacKaye (father of the Appalachian Trail), Harvey Broome (notable Tennessee author and conservationist), and Bob Marshall (namesake for a million acre wilderness area in Montana). This group of five was simmering on a provocative, and at that time new, idea: that some places should be left to their own devices where people could experience nature on its own terms. Setting aside large tracts of land as untrammeled wilderness provided the best way to protect nature’s wildness.

That historic day marked the beginning of The Wilderness Society, the organization most closely associated with the Wilderness Act, establishing a National Wilderness Preservation System that now contains over 100 million acres. These wilderness areas provide the core of a network of wildlands aimed at protecting nature and passing it on to future generations. As conservation science has developed, wilderness designation has repeatedly been shown to effectively protect wildlife and their habitats, clean water, and refuges from many pernicious threats.

77 years after The Wilderness Society was conceived, research ecologists met again in the Smokies to take on a new provocative idea: how do we ensure that future generations will have opportunities to experience nature under increasing pressures from climate change and other threats unknown in 1934?

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Do you have what it takes to complete the Dirty Dozen Wilderness Hike Challenge? Presented by The Wilderness Society and Blue Ridge Outdoors Magazine, this challenge is a great way to celebrate the 50th anniversary of The Wilderness Act, discover new places or revisit favorites, and have the chance to win prizes.

2014-2015 marks the 50th anniversary of The Wilderness Act, the legislation that established the National Wilderness Preservation System and set aside an initial 9.1 million acres of wildlands. Congress, through this Act, recognized the importance of Wilderness as a resource for generations to come.

In celebration of this important anniversary, The Southern Appalachian Office of The Wilderness Society wants you to get out and enjoy the Wilderness Areas near you. The Dirty Dozen Wilderness Hike Challenge is a chance for you to visit the wildest places that are preserved by The Wilderness Act. Log 10+ miles in 12 Wilderness Areas in the Southeast, show them and tell them about it, and you could win outdoor swag.

Learn more…