Protect Public Lands.
Our Public Lands Programs
An intact, interconnected network of natural lands and waters is essential to protecting biodiversity. Undeveloped public lands play a key role in this network. Our mapping and geographic analysis expertise supports the larger conservation community’s work shaping federal public land planning and management decisions. Our oil and gas work successfully mitigates one of the biggest threats to public lands: fossil fuels development.
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Our Public Lands Conservation Program:
Americans share ownership of approximately 640 million acres of land and water in the United States. These public lands include national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, monuments, as well as lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. Land planning and management decisions are made collaboratively between the federal agencies and the general public.
Rocky Mountain Wild works in collaboration with the larger conservation community to provide science-based recommendations that protect wildlife movement corridors, lands with wilderness characteristics, roadless areas, and other key habitats. Our team provides mapping and geospatial analysis to support conservation alternatives; biological input on species specific issues; input on wildlife corridor protections and restoration; opportunities for public engagement through comment writing, social media, and other activities; and legal counsel and action on unlawful management decisions.
Public Lands Conservation Resources:
Our Oil and Gas Watch Program:
The federal government owns rights to about 700 million acres of onshore mineral resources, including oil and natural gas, in the United States. That is about 30% of the lands in the United States. As of the end of September 2024, over 22 million acres of these lands2020, over 26.6 million acres of these lands were leased to corporations and individuals for oil and gas development. Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, and Montana, and Nevada have the largest amount of land leased in the Continental United States.
Rocky Mountain Wild works with a coalition of organizations across the Rocky Mountain West that monitors oil and gas leasing in those states. Oil and gas development compromises our public lands and waters, changes and fragments wildlife habitats, threatens irreplaceable cultural resources and sacred sites, and risks our health and outdoor legacy. We work to stop leasing that would harm wildlife and wild lands. We have been directly involved in the deferral of over 3 million acres of public land from oil and gas development.
Oil and Gas Watch Resources:
