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With towering redwood forests, pristine mountain peaks, and rugged desert landscapes, the wild lands of California encompass some of the most beautiful and diverse places on earth. These are refuges where eagles still soar across the horizon and salmon still swim from ocean to river–-lands where nature thrives and the human spirit is free.

California’s wild places offer a retreat from the frenetic pace of everyday life, and are also critically important to the ecological health of our region. Wilderness provides homes to threatened wildlife, supplies clean drinking water to California’s growing communities, and contributes to clean air in our skies.

CWC's primary goal has been and remains achieving formal wilderness designation and protection by the state or federal government for as much of the wild California landscape as possible. Usually this requires legislative action and deep grass-roots organizing. CWC also monitors and responds to development threats to proposed or existing wilderness areas as staff resources permit.

Since 1976, we have been a key player in achieving wilderness protection for more than 10 million acres in California. Most recently, CWC helped pass the Northern California Coastal Wild Heritage Wilderness Act, which protects 275,000 acres of oak woodlands, salmon rivers and old growth forest -- including the fabled Lost Coast. In addition to other projects, we are currently working on wilderness legislation covering 200,000 acres of desert, chaparral, and oak forest in Riverside County.

We believe that local activism is often the most effective defense of our wild lands. To support local efforts, CWC has field offices in Redding and San Bernardino County, and a central office in Oakland. We publish a quarterly news journal, the Wilderness Record, guides and white papers on wilderness issues, an e-mail newsletter, Untrammeled, and periodic action alerts on key conservation issues.

CWC has more than 3,700 members - individuals, organizations, and business sponsors - including the California Native Plant Society, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Desert Survivors, the South Yuba River Citizens League, and the Los Angeles Chapter of the Audubon Society.