Conservation Northwest completes Cascades to Olympics Capital Campaign

Conservation Northwest completes Cascades to Olympics Capital Campaign

Final property closing protects key wildlife corridor and strengthens long-term vision for habitat connectivity across Interstate 5

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mitch Friedman, Executive Director, mitch@conservationnw.org; 360-319-9266

Jasmine Minbashian, Communications Director, jasmine@conservationnw.org, 360-319-3111

Video footage available

GRAND MOUND, Wash. – March 27, 2026

Conservation Northwest has completed its Cascades to Olympics Capital Campaign, securing the final property in a years-long effort to protect one of the last viable wildlife connections between the Cascade and Olympic mountain ranges.

The campaign focused on a critical stretch of habitat in southern Thurston County near a potential Interstate 5 wildlife crossing. By securing and helping conserve a network of at-risk properties on both sides of the highway, Conservation Northwest and its partners have preserved one of the best remaining opportunities to reconnect two of Washington’s most important ecosystems.

“Could a cougar born on the Olympic Peninsula one day make its way toward Mount Rainier? For years, that felt more like a dream than a realistic conservation outcome,” said Mitch Friedman, Executive Director of Conservation Northwest. “This campaign helped turn that vision into something tangible. We have protected the habitat needed to keep that possibility alive.”

The final property to close was the 93-acre Vine Maple Farm, owned by six generations of the Erickson family that first settled there in 1891. Located near the preferred northern crossing area, the property is both an important piece of the wildlife corridor and a story of long family stewardship. Conservation Northwest provided funding and coordination that enabled the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation to acquire the property, returning the land to Tribal ownership within the Tribe’s traditional territory.

“This success belongs to the Erickson family and to the many landowners, partners, and donors who helped hold this corridor together,” Friedman said. “Again and again, we found ourselves acting just in time before a property was subdivided, auctioned, or developed.”

Marla Erickson LeFevre, an Erickson family descendant added, “Just knowing that this land is going from our family back to where it belongs with the Chehalis Tribes makes us very happy. It feels like a full circle moment.”

The capital campaign also helped secure or stabilize several other key properties in the corridor, including a wooded10-acre parcel that may one day host the western ramp of a wildlife overpass, the wooded 78-acre Murphy property that occupies where the eastern ramp of an overpass would be built, the 150-acre Veterans Ecological Trade Collective property, and nearby parcels that provide refuge for a local elk herd. The effort also coincided with major progress on the 2,357-acre Port Blakely Tree Farm, where the Washington Legislature appropriated nearly $8 million for a conservation easement to prevent future development.

Of significant celebration is the return of key parcels to Tribal stewardship.

Dustin Klatush, Chairman of the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, said: “The Chehalis Tribe is excited to partner with Conservation Northwest to secure land in southern Thurston County as part of a larger wildlife migration corridor project. Interstate 5 is a vital conduit for people and commerce, but it also acts as a barrier to the natural migration patterns of the many animals that call this region home.”

Altogether, generous donors contributed more than $2 million to help Conservation Northwest acquire key properties for stewardship by the Chehalis Tribe and support other conservation solutions across the corridor.

Conservation Northwest has also worked with the Washington State Department of Transportation and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife to advance the long-term vision for wildlife crossings at both northern and southern linkage areas. Whether a wildlife overpass is ultimately built at this location will be determined by WSDOT, WDFW, Tribal partners, the people of Washington State and public and private investments.

“This campaign achieved many things. Foremost is that when Washington chooses to reconnect this landscape, the habitat foundation is now in place,” Friedman said.

About Conservation Northwest

Conservation Northwest protects, connects and restores wildlands and wildlife from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies.

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