Speak up for wilderness before the August 14 deadline

Why this Matters

The Department of the Interior is running a sweeping review of the policies that safeguard wilderness on nearly 200 million acres of national parks, national wildlife refuges, and Bureau of Land Management country. The review could open those lands to industrial development, resource extraction, expanded motorized use, and privatization. Three designated wilderness areas sit in the Siuslaw National Forest at our back door: Drift Creek, Cummins Creek, and Rock Creek. Drift Creek holds some of the last low-elevation old-growth left on the central coast, and the marbled murrelets that feed offshore from Waldport fly inland to nest in exactly that kind of canopy. What happens to those forests and what happens to Alsea Bay are the same question. Comments close August 14, 2026.

Steps to Take

Step 1

Open the comment form on Sierra Club's Defend America's Wilderness action page. One submission reaches the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service together.

Step 2

Rewrite the prepared message in your own words. Agencies weigh a personal comment far more heavily than a form letter, and you have up to 4,000 characters to work with.

Step 3

Name a specific place and a specific use. Drift Creek Wilderness, Cummins Creek, Rock Creek, the Cape Perpetua headland. Say what you do there, who you take with you, and what would be lost if roads and machinery arrived.

Step 4

Submit before August 14, 2026. The docket is BLM-2026-0069-0001 if you would rather comment directly through regulations.gov.

Sample Text

Option 1

I live on the Oregon Coast, and the wilderness closest to my home is Drift Creek in the Siuslaw National Forest. It holds some of the last low-elevation old-growth on this coast. Marbled murrelets nest in those trees and feed in the ocean off Waldport, so the health of that forest and the health of our bay are one question, not two. Please do not weaken the policies that keep these lands wild. A road built into a roadless place cannot be unbuilt, and no later decision gives it back.

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Option 2

I am asking you to keep strong protections in place for Wilderness Areas, Wilderness Study Areas, recommended wilderness, and lands with wilderness characteristics. Quiet country is getting rarer every year. My family hikes and fishes on public land, and the reason those trips are worth taking is that someone before us chose restraint. Please make the same choice.