WILD Act of 2025

Allows federal, state, local, and Tribal agencies to operate unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) inside designated wilderness, potential wilderness, and wilderness study areas for specific purposes: environmental monitoring and research (including harmful algal blooms and invasive species), law enforcement and search and rescue (including U.S. Customs and Border Protection), and monitoring the effects of a natural disaster. The change is a single amendment to the Wilderness Act that adds these uses and references existing statutory definitions for “natural disaster” and “unmanned aircraft system.”