Overview

The American Wilderness Coalition was established in January 2001 to support grassroots advocacy efforts to protect America's last remaining wild places. Many of the efforts underway today are aimed at working with Congress to pass laws to protect these special areas as "Wilderness" - a congressional designation that permanently protects parcels of our public land in their natural condition.

With help from leaders in the conservation community from around the country, the American Wilderness Coalition (AWC) created Wild Card, the first ever Wilderness Report Card. The AWC researched and analyzed the records of Members of Congress to protect Wilderness during the 106th and first part of the 107th Congress. A grade was given to Members of Congress based on three factors: votes, co-sponsorships and leadership on individual wilderness bills or issues. These actions were used as the basis to determine who is and who is not protecting America’s public lands.

In the Senate there are six votes and two co-sponsorships - a total of eight wilderness positions. In the House of Representatives, there are eight votes and four co-sponsorships – a total of twelve wilderness positions. Where Members of Congress displayed acts of leadership to protect wilderness, "extra-credit" was awarded and their grade increased one letter grade. For example if someone received a B and he or she sponsored legislation to protect wilderness, they would receive an A. In effect, this will recognize Members of Congress who have shown an extra effort to protect America’s wilderness. Click here for a complete list.

Designated Wilderness can be found today in all but six of the 50 states, where these wild places encompass 106 million acres of public lands. Together, these areas make up our National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS).

The 106th Congress approved eight Wilderness bills that added more than one million acres of public lands to the NWPS to be protected for future generations. This was the largest number of Wilderness acres added to the NWPS since 1994 and was in stark contrast to the 105th Congress, which added no new Wilderness areas. New Wilderness areas designated by the 106th Congress are found in Alabama, California, Colorado, Nevada, Oregon and Virginia. A complete list of the state Wilderness legislation passed in the 106th Congress can be found here.

There are currently eight pro-wilderness bills that have been introduced in the 107th Congress. A complete list of the Wilderness legislation introduced to date in the 107th Congress can be found here.

Wild Card
Senate
Grade	D	I	R	Total
A+	4	0	0	4
A	17	0	1	18
B	16	1	1	18
C	9	0	3	12
D	3	0	7	10
F	1	0	37	38
Total	50	1	49	100

Wild Card

House of Representatives

Grade

D

I

R

Total

A+

11

0

3

14

A

113

1

2

116

B

51

0

13

64

C

20

0

5

25

D

12

1

13

26

F

3

0

182

185

No Grade*

6

0

4

10

Total

216

2

222

440

* Because of special elections, these members were not able to receive a grade.

The American Wilderness Coalition would like to recognize the 18 Members of Congress who received an A+ and showed true leadership to protect America's wilderness.

Senate: Joe Lieberman (CT), Richard Durbin (IL), John Kerry (MA), Russ Feingold (WI)

House of Representatives: George Miller (CA07), Diana DeGette (CO01), Mark Udall (CO02), Rosa DeLauro (CT03), Christopher Shays (CT04), Connie Morella (MD08), Edward Markey (MA07), Chris Smith (NJ04), Rush Holt (NJ12), Carolyn Maloney (NY14), Maurice Hinchey (NY26), David Wu (OR01), Peter DeFazio (OR04), Jay Inslee (WA01).

Today in more than 20 states, Americans are working together to identify areas of public land that qualify for Wilderness protection, develop proposals and build support at the state and local level for permanently protecting these areas as Wilderness for future generations to enjoy and explore. Many of these efforts to protect new Wilderness areas may soon result in the introduction of legislation in Congress. Once legislation is introduced, all Members of Congress will have an opportunity to support these new bills to protect additional Wilderness areas as part of our National Wilderness Preservation System and join with the American public who want these special places protected, not destroyed.