Columbia Highlands: Investing capital for wildlife connectivity

Keeping a changing west wild

To truly connect lands that are important for both people and wildlife between the Cascades and the Rockies, we work across the whole landscape. Balance on public lands alone won’t achieve safe passage for wildlife.

We are working to achieve maximum connectivity between the Cascades and Rockies ecosystems through three separate efforts:

• Partner with ranching families who act as stewards of wildlife habitat on their own property and grazing allotments on the Colville National Forest. In August 2011, we announced our first win: an easement on lands owned by the Dawsons, who also lease large tracts in the Abercrombie-Hooknose Roadless Area that we (with the Dawson's support) have proposed for wilderness protection. One of Washington's five confirmed wolf packs was found in this area.
  Learn more about ranch conservation.
  
• Preserve Okanogan grasslands for connectivity between the Cascades and Columbia Highlands. We've already helped raise almost $20 million from state and federal sources to keep about 15,000 acres of privately owned Okanogan grassland habitat in open space.
  

  Learn more about ranch conservation.

• Protect wilderness, working lands and recreation in the Colville National Forest, with our groundbreaking balanced plan for Forest which protects the most critical wildlands between the Okanogan and the Canadian Rockies.
  Learn more about our plan for wilderness and more
  

Working for more than just the land

Preserving connectivity between the Cascades and Rockies is not enough to ensure that all critical wildlife will thrive. We are currently working to recover imperiled species in the area like lynx and wolves in the area, including funding important studies of lynx habitat, working with landowners in wolf territory, and more.
Learn more about lynx and wolf recovery in and around the Columbia Highlands.  

Finding the right solution

Ranching families across northeast Washington often face difficult choices in a changing West, and we follow multiple avenues to help keep their lands in open space for wildlife, from conservation easements and conservation purchases.
Learn more about the paths to protecting wildlife habitat in and around the Columbia Highlands

Funding the vision of connected lands

Conservation Northwest must raise $1.25 million by the end of 2012 to purchase easements on key ranches and recover lynx. We already have $550,000 pledged, and you can help us meet our goal.

Note that capital investments like these go far, as they leverage public dollars from the Farm and Ranch Protection Program and hopefully the Forest Legacy Program. And their impact is also multiplied many times by our work through the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition to gain wilderness, forest restoration, and overall balance on federal lands in the Columbia Highlands.

Balance on our public lands, wilderness protection, wildlife recovery, and private land conservation between the Cascades and the Rockies: It all adds up to a wilder Northwest

Your support is vital. Please make an investment in safe passage for wildlife between the Cascases and the Rockies. Contact Paul Bannick, 206, 675-9747 x207