MAPS
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
​​Wyoming public wildlands are the traditional and ancestral homelands, territories, and hunting grounds of more than thirty Indigenous Tribal nations, many with inherent sovereign and reserved treaty rights regarding the lands, waterways, wildlife, and vegetation within the state. Tribal nations have stewarded and maintained kinship with these ecosystems since time immemorial, cultivating comprehensive and unique place-based knowledge systems that offer critical perspectives and wisdom regarding the future of wild landscapes. Wyoming Wilderness Association respects and honors Tribes and Indigenous Peoples on whose traditional lands and territories we work, including but certainly not limited to: Aaniiih (Gros Ventre) Apsáalooke (Crow) Assiniboine Blackfeet Bannock Bitterroot Salish Cayuse Cheyenne River Sioux Chippewa Cree Eastern Shoshone Hidatsa Hinono’ei (Arapaho) Kiowa Kootenai Lower Brule Sioux Nakoda (Assiniboine) Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) Northern Arapaho Northern Cheyenne Northern Ute Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Oglala Sioux Paiute Rosebud Sioux Sahnish (Arikara) Shoshone Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Skull Valley Band of Goshute Southern Ute Tsistsistas (Cheyenne) Umatilla Walla Walla By acknowledging the ongoing legacy of Native stewardship and sovereignty along with the history of forced dispossession and broken treaties that created the public wildlands we know today, we commit to engage and elevate Indigenous Tribal nations, voices, and interests in our efforts. We believe wildlands are for everyone and by embracing a holistic and encompassing approach, we are better equipped to pursue designations and management that safeguard these undeveloped places as intact and resilient landscapes, honoring their cultural past and ensuring their future.
​​ To learn about the Indigenous Tribal nations connected to Wyoming, please visit respective Tribal websites or the links below:
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Greater Yellowstone Coalition Ancestral Connections Map
MAP BACKGROUND
WILDERNESS AREAS IN WYOMING
The 1984 Wyoming Wilderness Act permanently protected 1.1 million acres of ecologically diverse, wild landscapes. The wilderness system in Wyoming encompasses roughly 3 million acres. However, 5 million acres of spectacular wild land, spanning deserts, forests, and plains, remains unprotected. Our top priority is to defend the wilderness characteristics of wild, roadless lands and safeguard their potential for future wilderness designation.​
WHAT IS A WILDERNESS STUDY AREA?
The Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 directed the BLM to inventory and study its roadless areas for wilderness characteristics throughout the west. The Wilderness Study Areas (WSAs) depicted in the following map are a result of that process. They are undeveloped lands that retain their primeval character and are managed to preserve their natural condition. These areas stay WSAs until Congress designates them as Wilderness, or releases protections.​
WHAT IS A WILDERNESS AREA?
In 1964, the Congress of the United States took a far-sighted action by passing the Wilderness Act, legally designating certain federal lands as Wilderness. Congress preserved these lands: “…in order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization does not occupy and modify all areas within the United States and its possessions, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition”. The Wilderness Act prohibits roads, mining, timber cutting and motorized vehicles in these areas.​
WHAT IS A ROADLESS AREA?
Established in 2001, the Roadless Conservation Rule safeguarded nearly 58 million acres of undeveloped forests nationwide from new permanent roads and large-scale industrial development, including 3.2 million acres in Wyoming. With about half of all National Forest land already open to drilling, logging, and mining, and less than 20 percent protected as Wilderness, remote Roadless Landscapes - and the clean air and water, intact habitat, pristine forests they encompass - are a significant and integral piece to the wildland network across the country.
ROADLESS AREAS INTERACTIVE MAP
WILDERNESS AREAS MAP
WILDERNESS STUDY AREAS MAP
