Bill Meadows

Wilderness Society President A national leader in public land conservation and environmental preservation, Wilderness Society President William H. Meadows serves as the organization’s key spokesman and advocate. Meadows brings more than four decades experience as an environmental advocate to his position. Under his leadership, 5 million acres have been added to the National Wilderness Preservation System and the society has played a key role in the ongoing protection of national forest, national parks, national monuments and wildlife refuges.

Meadows, who credits Earth Day as the inspiration behind his environmental activism, has also been a force behind efforts to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Rocky Mountain Front, the Northern Forest, and the Southern Appalachians, and continues to provide leadership on wilderness campaigns in Idaho, Utah, Montana, California, and Washington State.

In 1992, Meadows began his professional conservation career as Director of the Sierra Club’s Centennial Campaign. Before that, he served as a volunteer leader on environmental issues in his home state of Tennessee, working closely with the Sierra Club, the Tennessee Environmental Council, and the Environmental Action Fund.

Meadows serves as chair of the Partnership Project, a partnership of 21 of the nation’s largest environmental advocacy groups that provides a voice for the national environmental community on environmental policy concerns. He is also a member of the board Island Press and the League of Conservation Voters, where he chairs its Political Committee and an active leader in the Green Group.