By 1965, a small group of back-country enthusiasts—including Floyd and Karen Stromstedt,[3] Marian and Bill Michalsky, and Steve and Helen Dixon[4]—raised concerns in meetings with "local farmers, teachers and community leaders", that Alberta's official "multiple-use" land policy, was "destroying, not preserving" Alberta's "public land wild spaces".
[5][3] In an April 1971 letter, Stromstedt described how the AWA had attracted 900 members—"some who love horses, some who hate horses; some who hunt, some who hate hunters; some who fish, some who do not fish; some who backpack, some who prefer day hikes; some who paint pictures, some who take photographs; some lone wolves, some with five children; some church leaders, some Girl Guides; some ranchers, some urbanites; and on and on, ad infinitum.
"[3] The AWA publishes the Wild Lands Advocate and Ian Urquhart is the current editor.
[7] In January 2019, the AWA joined with the David Suzuki Foundation, and Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation to file an application for an emergency protection order for five caribou herds in northeastern Alberta.
[9] In April 2023, AWA submitted a request asking the Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) to reconsider approvals given to Suncor Energy in September 2022, to expand its existing Fort Hills oil sands mine into the McClelland Lake wetland complex (MLWC)[13]—a wetland that has the potential for storing from 8 to 35 million tonnes equivalence of carbon dioxide, according to a Canadian Press article.