This summer the Department of the Interior issued a “Requests for Information” (RFI) on potential revisions to how the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fish and Wildlife Service manage wilderness, wilderness study areas, and lands with wilderness characteristics. We weighed in because these decisions shape where and how people experience some of the country’s wildest and most protected landscapes for years to come. Trail runners have a particular stake in getting this right: wilderness protects the quiet, undeveloped places where we can travel under our own power, experience solitude, and connect deeply with the land.
RPL’s message to federal land managers is straightforward: keep wilderness protections strong while recognizing that responsible, human-powered recreation belongs in these landscapes.
At the core of our comments is a strong defense of wilderness protections. Places like the Mount Massive Wilderness in Colorado, and the Stephen Mather Wilderness in Washington’s North Cascade Mountains offer exactly the kind of quiet, undeveloped, self-reliant experience that trail runners value—and that the Wilderness Act is meant to protect. We’re urging federal agencies to keep those protections strong while avoiding one-size-fits-all rules: an individual runner or small group on an existing trail is very different from a large event requiring aid stations, extensive course markings, vehicles, or other infrastructure. The goal is to protect wilderness character, wildlife, cultural resources, and solitude while giving land managers clear, practical tools to allow appropriate low-impact running, education, and stewardship where those activities fit the landscape.
All of this is happening as the current administration considers whether to rescind roadless area protections from nearly 45 million acres of national forest lands, weakens how agencies implement the National Environmental Policy Act, reverses long-standing procedures for determining whether endangered species and their habitat are being harmed, and shrinks two iconic national monuments by nearly 3 million acres. While we appreciate land management agencies taking a fresh look at their protocols from time to time, the latest wilderness management RFIs are likely part of the broader pattern of regulatory rollbacks that have characterized public land policy for the past 18 months.
So why do we need to be part of this decision-making process? Because runners are more than visitors to public lands. We see trail conditions firsthand, experience changing landscapes across seasons, volunteer on trail and restoration projects, and develop lasting relationships with the places where we run. Federal wilderness policy should reflect both sides of that relationship: protecting wild places from activities that would diminish their wilderness character while giving runners meaningful opportunities to experience, understand, steward, and advocate for them. By speaking up now, Runners for Public Lands is working to ensure that wilderness remains wild—and that the running community remains a strong constituency for protecting it.
You can read our full comments to the three agencies by clicking on the one of the buttons below:
Featured image: Stephen Mather Wilderness in North Cascades National Park in Washington. Photo by Jason Keith