30 years of keeping the Northwest wild

Thank you for all you’ve done to help protect, connect and restore our wildlands and wildlife these past 30 years!

By Mitch Friedman, Executive Director

As our 30th anniversary year comes to a close, I am humbled and awed reflecting on all that we’ve been able to achieve together over our history. When I began this work in 1989, many of the things we’ve been able to accomplish were just ideas and dreams we didn’t know would ever be possible.

Now many of our most important wildlands are protected and connected once again, allowing them to function as whole, healthy ecosystems, and iconic wildlife like fishers and wolves are making a comeback after being totally extirpated from the Northwest decades ago.

Whether it’s as a member, volunteer, advocate, partner or friend, thank you so much for standing with us these past 30 years to make this wild work possible. As the timeline below shows, there’s so much that we can celebrate and be grateful for thanks to your commitment and care.

If you have yet to do so, this is also your last chance to make a year-end gift that will support vital conservation efforts in the year ahead. We’re so grateful for your support and will put your gift to good use protecting, connecting and restoring our incredible wildlife that inspire so much awe and are essential for the health of our vulnerable wildlands.

This is just some of our impact over the last 30 years made possible by support from our members. Recent accomplishments from this past year include:

Released more than 60 fishers into the North and South Cascades in 2019 with our partners at the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and the National Park Service. This brings the total up to more than 240 fishers released into the Olympics and Cascades since 2007 and brings us close to the completion of our recovery efforts.

The final land transfer permanently protecting the 1,600-acre Blanchard Core in the Chuckanut Mountains was approved—a win we’ve been fighting 20 years for!

Generated hundreds of activist letters that informed the final Snoquera project plan in the Central Cascades north of Mount Rainier, which includes more than 40,000 acres of forest restoration and habitat improvements, 24 miles of decommissioned roads, and more than 50 sites designated for watershed repair.

After years of advocating for protection of the Skagit Headwaters, in December, British Columbia banned logging in this sensitive area.

The culmination of years of work with our cross-border partners, British Columbia and Canada announced the establishment of the South Okanagan-Similkameen National Park Reserve just north of the border.

Renovated the Janis Bridge on Highway 97 to improve function as an undercrossing that’s now saving the lives of mule deer, preventing vehicle collisions and creating better connectivity for wildlife in the Okanogan Valley.

I want to offer our deepest thanks for everything you’ve done to help make these wins possible and to make the Northwest a wilder, more resilient place for both people and wildlife.

Wishing you a happy New Year and another successful year ahead working together on behalf of wildlife and wildlands.

TIME IS RUNNING OUT TO make your YEAR-END GIFT for the wild. PLEASE HELP US GET A STRONG START TO PROTECTING, CONNECTING AND RESTORING OUR WILDLANDS  AND WILDLIFE IN 2020!