Wildlands CPR offers winning, positive solutions to protecting and restoring our public lands.
Workshops
Since our workshop program began in 1995, Wildlands CPR has trained nearly 1,250 activists and agency employees to: 1)monitor and inventory system and non-system roads and motorized routes; 2) prevent new road construction; and 2) understand and promote road removal. We've sponsored workshops in Alabama, Alaska, Alberta (Canada), Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, North Carolina, South Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington (we've held multiple workshops in many of these states).
Presentations, Conferences and Research
Wildlands CPR staff members have given hundreds of presentations to thousands of people at conferences and workshops throughout the U.S. In addition, we've raised and distributed nearly $10,000 for original research on road removal.
Litigation
Wildlands CPR has been involved in about 25 lawsuits, ranging from intervening on behalf of the Forest Service against the timber industry or off-road vehicle users, to suing to stop roads and motorized recreation. We've won all but two of our cases, upholding many road and route closures and preventing new construction.
Bibliographic Database
In 1995, Reed Noss, (Davis-Shine Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Central Florida) oversaw development of a bibliographic database on the ecological effects of roads and motorized recreation. We've updated the database every other year, and it now contains more than 10,000 citations. It's been used by activists and land managers throughout the U.S., including nearly every federal agency that manages land (e.g. Park Service, Environmental Protection Agency, Bureau of Indian Affairs). Researchers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, England, Germany, Indonesia, Israel, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sweden, The Netherlands, and many other countries have also used the database - it is one of the largest collections of road and off-road vehicle information in the world.
Information Requests
Wildlands CPR responds to an average of 500 informatin requests per year - roughly 6,000 since our inception. Requests include anything from bibliographic searches to strategy consultations; many people also access our resources directly online.
Protecting our remaining roadless land from off-road vehicles and more roads is critical to our work. And unneeded and damaging roads should be removed and restored back to wild nature.
Road restoration protects water sources
Removing roads restores our watersheds and enhances water supplies for drinking, irrigation and boating. For example, the city of Seattle is investing $6 million over the next 20 years to remove roads in their watershed instead of spending far more money building and maintaining a water filtration plant.
Photo by Mark Alan Wilson
Road restoration improves fish and wildlife habitat for people to enjoy
Wildlife like elk and bear thrive in roadless forests. Watershed
restoration also provides clean water for fish like salmon and trout,
and solitude for all Americans to enjoy.
Photo contributed by Scott Stouder
Road restoration strengthens local economies
Road removal brings high-skilled, family-wage jobs to local workers and communities. Restoration puts people to work mending the land and water.
Wendell Larkin, Excavator, 12+ years restoration experience. Photo by John McCullah
Current Programs
Wildlands CPR's current programs include Restoration and Off-Road Vehicle/Transportation Policy. Our Restoration Program seeks to elevate road removal as an integral component of forest restoration, by combining the ecological benefits of road removal with the economic benefits of road removal jobs. Since it is often the motorized recreationists who want to keep roads open, and fight road removal restoration efforts by demanding more and more access to the backcountry, our Restoration and Transportation Policy programs work in tandem: neutralizing the opposition to road removal through effective organizing and policy, de-paves the way for road removal.