Here’s how it works:

• Citizens pick a favorite area that needs protection. If they don’t have a favorite area in mind, they are given a list of local unprotected wilderness areas that need an adopter. Sometimes an individual adopts a wilderness, but more often than not, a group of people adopt an area. In both Portland and Ashland church groups have adopted their local favorite areas.
• Wilderness adopters attend field trainings where they learn map and compass skills, how to read various maps and satellite photos of forests, and how to update and verify mapping data. They are given packets containing maps and existing data about their area. Follow-up assistance is offered adopters as needed.
• The adopters then verify the boundary of their adopted wilderness area, taking all the existing logging roads around its perimeter and adding information about new roads and logged tracts that might not be on the maps.
• The adopters also hike through their area, taking pictures and recording information about the values of the place, the plants and wildlife, the scenery, the hiking trails, and other points of interest. The adopters also record threats to the area, from proposed logging and roadbuilding, to mining, overgrazing or overuse by recreationalists.
• The adopters also may become local advocates for their area, educating the public by offering hikes, giving slide shows, setting up displays at local community events, and contacting local officials about the need to protect the area.
• The information gathered by each wilderness adopter on their area will help form a citizen proposal for wilderness protection throughout Oregon. Additionally, the local efforts by adopters will educate local communities about wilderness areas near them that are in need of protection, thereby building a base of support for wilderness protection throughout Oregon.

In two years time, approximately 500 individuals have adopted 378 roadless areas to serve as mappers, monitors, and publicists until their areas receive formal wilderness protection from Congress. Add to that the individuals who have attended trainings, campouts & hikes, and there are over 1,000 people who have found a new appreciation for the special character of Oregon’s forested wild lands.

And the number of wilderness adopters is growing.  As the number of wilderness adopters continues to grow, so will the strength of the campaign to protect the remaining forested wild lands in Oregon.