In order to accomplish this goal, we will have a primary focus on public lands, for the following reasons: (1) public lands contain most of the significant open spaces and ecosystems in the West; (2) the threats to public lands are perhaps greater today than at any other point in our history; (3) the venues for influencing management decisions over public lands are limited in number, and are accessible; and (4) decisions that are made in the next ten to twenty years will have profound effects on the future sustainability of our public lands.

We will also look for high-leverage ways to help private land owners conserve ecologically significant lands.

While we have chosen a number of the most prominent threats to focus on in the next several years, as listed below, it is important to understand that many of these threats will be influenced by the same decisionmaking processes. For example, a number of BLM districts in the West will be updating their management plans in the next several years.

These management plans will provide the framework for decisions on everything from oil and gas development to recreational use. We have disaggregated the threats because we feel it is crucial to understand social, economic, and technological trends in order to shape intelligent policies, and also because we need to be explicit in identifying and approaching decisionmakers.

And, of course, ecosystems are holistic: it makes little sense, for example, to achieve wilderness protection for some fantastic landscape if that wilderness is then de-watered. But at the end of the detailed analysis, the goal is unified: Protect the great open spaces of the West.

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