Wildlife on Public Lands

Defenders of Wildlife champions the protection of America’s public lands, primarily because of its extreme importance in conserving wildlife species. Today resource extraction, climate change and urban sprawl are all taking their toll on our public lands.

A New Vision for America's Wildlife

Defenders of Wildlife advocates legislation that would reassert our country’s commitment to wildlife conservation values. The legislation would require the Federal, state, tribal, and local governments to work together and maintain robust, healthy wildlife populations across the American landscape, including populations of both common and imperiled fish and wildlife species.

America’s Lands. America’s Wildlife.

Defenders of Wildlife has long championed the protection of America’s system of public lands. Conservation, however, has taken a back seat to resource extraction on most public lands units in recent years, despite increasing evidence that non-extractive uses – recreation, wildlife viewing, hunting and fishing –form the backbone of the new Western economy and are enjoyed by Americans nationwide. In addition, public lands face threats that land managers never had to consider before, including the effects of climate change and incredible urban sprawl.

Ecosystem-based Wildlife Management on Public Lands

In 1982, the Reagan Administration enacted a simple approach to managing wildlife on National Forests. It enacted regulations requiring the Forest Service to maintain healthy, robust populations of wildlife species in each National Forest. About 20 percent of all endangered species occur on America’s over 192 million National Forest acres, along with countless other more common plants and animals. The regulations, known collectively as the “Population Viability Rule,” helped healthy populations of wildlife species, including game species, thrive and keep more sensitive species off of the endangered species list in the first place.

Unfortunately, in 2005, the Bush Administration finalized new forest management regulations that repealed the Population Viability Rule, largely at the urging of the logging industry and over the objections of conservation groups, sportsmen, and outdoor businesses.

Lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) harbor a large number of common and imperiled species, just like National Forests, but the BLM has never operated under any kind of wildlife management standard similar to the Population Viability Rule. Conversely, National Parks have long been recognized as the leader in ecosystem-based wildlife conservation, but face increasing threats from outside their borders, mostly due to resource extraction activities on adjacent National Forests, BLM units, and private lands.

A Future for Wildlife

With more controversy than ever about protecting endangered species, and emerging controversies surrounding oil and gas development, logging and fuels reduction, the effects of climate change on wildlife, and massive Western population growth, the time is right to enact a new, achievable wildlife management standard not only on our National Forests, but on Bureau of Land Management lands as well, and to require coordination with the National Park Service and other federal, state, and local agencies to ensure truly comprehensive wildlife conservation across the nation.