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The Earth is changing faster than at any time in recorded history. Globally, we are facing largescale losses in biodiversity and associated ecosystem function, changes in disturbance regimes, and widespread human migration and cultural loss (e.g., IPCC 2021). In the United States, we face many related challenges, including intensifying wildfire and climatic events, species and habitat loss, increasing demand for environmental and social justice, and rapid social change such as urbanization. In 1964, the Wilderness Act codified formal protections for lands we know today as designated wilderness collectively, the National Wilderness Preservation System (NWPS), the most environmentally protected public lands in the United States. Wilderness is not only part of our national story. It also provides myriad benefits: from spiritual renewal and recreation opportunities to clean air and water, habitat for plants and wildlife, food and economic security, and opportunities to conduct scientific studies. Consequently, wilderness is important to many people as part of our collective past, present, and future. Wilderness can mean many different things to different people and expectations for uses, such as recreation and subsistence activities, vary depending on differences in cultural background, belief systems, and education, to name a few. Long-term protection required by law, combined with an increasing rate of climate change and a growing understanding of how Indigenous peoples cared for the lands now designated as wilderness, results in a complex wilderness stewardship landscape.