WASHINGTON - July 20 - The Sierra Club released today a "Wildlands at Risk" report highlighting 25 places across the country where the Bush administration’s unprecedented assault on our public lands could have lasting impacts. With Americans heading to the great outdoors this summer, "Wildlands at Risk" is a sampling of wild places across the country, many of them popular vacation spots, that represents the kinds of threats America’s wildlands face from Bush administration policies.

The report is available at http://www.sierraclub.org/wildlands/wildlandsatrisk.

The Sierra Club is also running a print ad today in the following cities to highlight these same threats to public lands: Charleston, West Virginia; Denver, Colorado; Portland, Oregon; Asheville, North Carolina; Athens, Georgia; San Antonio, Texas; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Phoenix, Arizona. The ad will run in Anchorage, Alaska, tomorrow. The ad can be viewed at: http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/media/.

"The stories in this report show the scope and magnitude of the Bush administration’s assault on America’s wild heritage," said Carl Pope, Sierra Club Executive Director. "The administration’s policies are reversing decades of progress on public lands protection and could destroy forever some of our most cherished hiking, hunting, fishing and camping spots."

Just last week, the Bush administration revoked critical protections for America’s last remaining wild forests, replacing the landmark Roadless Area Conservation Rule with a convoluted system that forces Governors to petition the Forest Service to not construct roads in or otherwise develop inventoried wild roadless forest areas. The administration also indicated that it intends to permanently exempt the national forests in Alaska from the wild forest protections. The administration has also moved forward with tens of thousands of new oil and gas leases, many of them in once ‘protected’ and environmentally sensitive places, as part of a departure from the traditional "multiple use" principle which formerly guided public land management.

"Hunters, hikers, boaters, anglers and families all seek the recreation and solitude that their public lands provide," said Pope. "As owners of our great public lands estate, all Americans, not solely oil and timber companies, should be able to enjoy these special places."

"Wildlands at Risk" highlights the following 25 places:

Alaska: Tongass National Forest; Teshekpuk Lake; Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Arizona: Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument; Kaibab National Forest

California: Sierra Nevadas; Giant Sequoia National Monument

Colorado: Dinosaur National Monument

Georgia: Chattahoochee National Forests

Idaho: Owyhees Canyonlands

Minnesota: Superior National Forest

Montana/Wyoming: Rocky Mountain Front and Powder River Basin

North Carolina: Great Smoky Mountains National Park

North Dakota: Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Oregon: Zane Grey roadless area

Pacific Northwest: Salmon

Texas: Padre Island National Seashore

Utah: Fisher Towers

Vermont: Lamb Brook Wilderness

West Virginia: Appalachia/Moutaintop removal; Monongohela National Forest

Wisconsin: Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest

Wyoming: Yellowstone National Park; Upper Green River Valley

"Wildlands at Risk" addresses why each of these places is special and worthy of protection, how Bush administration policies threaten their beauty, integrity and sustainability, and how we can do better so that future generations can explore these same wild places.

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