Advocacy

When you register for Run the Red, you are signing up for more than just a race. You are showing land managers, decision makers, and the people of Wyoming that this is a landscape worth protecting — for future generations to experience and be inspired by. 

We know that one of the best ways to experience a landscape is to run through it. This was why Run the Red was created by three Wyoming non-profits dedicated to conservation and stewardship of public lands – to help connect people like you to one the most wild and threatened landscapes in Wyoming.

The Northern Red Desert is often described as the largest unfenced area in the Lower 48. It is home to nine “wilderness study areas”— large, wild, roadless tracts determined through a national process to contain some of our nation’s best remote opportunities for solitude and recreation. These special places help preserve badlands, historic trails, fossilized remains from the shores of ancient seas, and early Native American petroglyphs and camps. The wide-open country also supports abundant wildlife, including a rare desert elk herd and crucial winter range for the migratory big game herds that roam southwest Wyoming. 

The future of the Red Desert is uncertain. The Bureau of Land Management’s Rock Springs Field Office is revising its resource management plan which will direct the management for the next 15-20 years for 3.6 million acres for what is called the Rock Springs Planning Area. This area includes parts of the Northern Red Desert and other adjacent lands of significant conservation value. 

To learn more about the Red Desert’s long history of advocacy or to join the movement to protect this landscape, visit our organizations below.