Beyond Your Backyard

Because the places you love don’t stop at the state line

Think about the public land that made you care. A trail you return to. A river you protect. A place that feels like yours because it belongs to everyone.

Those places aren’t protected in isolation.

Public lands across the country — from your state to Alaska — are part of one connected system, shaped by the same national decisions and values. Beyond Your Backyard is about recognizing that connection, and showing up for public lands wherever they’re needed.

Because protecting what you love close to home starts with protecting the system that makes it possible.

Go Beyond Your Backyard

One Public Lands System. Many Backyards.

What’s Happening in Alaska

Alaska holds some of the largest public lands in the country — protected under the same principles that safeguard places in Colorado, Oregon, California, Montana, Utah, and beyond. Right now, federal decisions are opening the door to expanded oil and gas development across Alaska’s public lands, including places long considered too important to industrialize. These choices could affect how more than 100 million acres are managed, and they set precedents that don’t stop at Alaska’s borders.

Your Backyard Is Connected

The trail, forest, or river you love is protected by national laws and policies—not just local ones. Those same rules apply to public lands in every state, including Alaska. When protections are strengthened or weakened anywhere, the effects ripple across the entire system. And when protections are weakened in Alaska, it sends the message that no public land is too remote, too wild, or too meaningful to be put on the table.

Going Beyond Your Backyard

Going beyond your backyard means standing up for the values that protect the places you love—access, stewardship, and respect for people and land—even when those places are far from home. It’s how we defend the entire public lands system, together—before the next place on the map becomes the next place on the chopping block.

Take the Beyond Your Backyard Pledge

By taking the Beyond Your Backyard pledge below, you commit to showing up for Alaska in 2026—not just from where you live, but where it matters most. You’re pledging to raise your voice for Alaska’s public lands and waters—places that belong to all of us, and to the generations who come after us.

By donating and/or signing, you will join Alaska Wilderness League’s Activist Network and receive communications from both Alaska Wilderness League and affiliate Alaska Wilderness League Action. We will keep you informed with the latest alerts and progress reports.