Shaping Washington’s Conservation Future: The 2025 Wildlife Action Plan

Shaping Washington’s Conservation Future: The 2025 Wildlife Action Plan

Conservation Northwest / Jun 10, 2025 /

Every ten years, Washington’s Wildlife Action Plan gets a major update—and the next version is underway right now. Led by the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW), the 2025 update will set the course for conserving the state’s biodiversity over the next decade. This comprehensive plan identifies species of greatest conservation need, outlines key habitat priorities, and proposes science-based strategies to protect and restore wildlife across Washington’s diverse landscapes. It’s not just a planning document; it’s the foundation for securing critical federal funding and guiding conservation actions that benefit all Washingtonians, human and wild alike.

“A State Wildlife Action Plan is much like the instruction manual that comes with flatpack furniture from a store like IKEA. It provides a detailed inventory of all the necessary components and outlines the steps required to assemble the final product while calling out the actions to avoid. While building the furniture without the manual is possible, doing so risks missing pieces, overlooking critical connections, or ending up with something that doesn’t function as intended. In the same way, a Wildlife Action Plan offers a full accounting of the key elements that make up a healthy ecosystem, along with a clear framework of actions needed to conserve and restore it. It serves as a blueprint to ensure that complex, functional ecosystems can thrive across the state.”
-Dan Wilson, Community Partnerships Manager

The Wildlife Action Plan plays a critical role in both securing and directing essential federal funding for biodiversity efforts across Washington. To be eligible for the State and Tribal Wildlife Grants program, each state must develop and maintain a Wildlife Action Plan that is updated at least every 10 years, as required by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These grants are specifically intended to support conservation efforts for at-risk species identified in the plan, funding activities such as habitat restoration, scientific research, species recovery, and ongoing monitoring.

While these grants are one of the few primary sources of federal funding for non-game species conservation, they are often leveraged to attract additional investments from state agencies, private donors, and nonprofit organizations like Conservation Northwest. In this way, State Wildlife Action Plans are not simply unfunded mandates from the federal government; they are designed to create a stable flow of funding and guide strategic investments for biodiversity in crisis.

One of the greatest contributions of the Wildlife Action Plans is the innovation and fresh thinking that emerge when each state drafts its own version. While the core components remain consistent, the final products often reflect each region’s unique ecological, cultural, and conservation priorities.

In Washington, the 2025 edition of the Wildlife Action Plan represents a major shift in approach. Rather than building from individual species upward, the WDFW has recognized the state’s ecological diversity and identified nine distinct “ecoregions” to anchor its recommendations and actions. This new structure makes sense: the same environmental stressors- and many conservation solutions- affect multiple species within a given ecosystem.

In Washington, the 2025 edition of the Wildlife Action Plan represents a major shift in approach. Rather than building from individual species upward, the WDFW has recognized the state’s ecological diversity and identified nine distinct “ecoregions” to anchor its recommendations and actions. This new structure makes sense: the same environmental stressors- and many conservation solutions- affect multiple species within a given ecosystem.

For example, sage-grouse and pygmy rabbits both rely on large, intact expanses of shrub-steppe habitat, while northern goshawks and Canada lynx depend on mature, structurally complex forests. While some actions must still be species-specific, identifying shared threats and broadly beneficial strategies allows conservationists to amplify their impact.

Habitat connectivity is central to both the State Wildlife Action Plan and Conservation Northwest’s mission. As Washington’s population surpasses 8 million, development continues to fragment critical wildlife habitat. Some species require direct interventions to reestablish movement, such as removing outdated fencing or restoring degraded migration corridors. Strategic upgrades to infrastructure, including wildlife overpasses and underpasses, are also essential. One of the most urgent opportunities lies along the I-5 corridor, where three ecoregions converge and targeted connectivity investments can have an outsized impact. By aligning Conservation Northwest’s work with SWAP’s priorities, we can advance a unified vision for resilient, connected landscapes that sustain both wildlife and communities.

Protecting and restoring habitat connectivity isn’t something any one group can do alone —it takes collaboration, commitment, and community support. As Washington’s next Wildlife Action Plan takes shape, we’ll be working with state and federal agencies, Tribal nations, and stakeholders across the conservation spectrum to ensure a strong, science-driven future for our state’s wildlife and wild places.

You can be a part of this work, protecting our biodiversity is an “all hands, all lands” effort. On May 5th, WDFW hosted an online public webinar to share results from the Wildlife Action Plan 2024 survey, current draft materials, key habitat concepts, and conservation themes, as well as the timeline for public draft reviews this summer. You can also find additional documents for the Action Plan, including maps, species criteria, and previous iterations. The process to finalize the Plan will continue through the fall, with more opportunities for public engagement and education along the way. We hope you’ll join us in shaping the future of Washington’s wildlife. Conservation Northwest will continue to advocate for our wildlife and the habitats they call home throughout the development of the Wildlife Action Plan.