The Columbia Highlands

Working lands and wilderness

Watch a 3-minute Google Earth tour or take a photo tour. Latest news.

In northeastern Washington, entering from British Columbia, the Columbia River cuts a gateway through the Kettle River Range and Selkirk Mountains, two subranges of the Rocky Mountains, and the Colville National Forest. Granite ridges and open park lands range northward from Highway 20 to the Canadian border with rolling shrub-steppe and old-growth pine, fir, and cedar forests. This is the beautiful and diverse region we call the Columbia Highlands.

The Columbia Highlands still holds the mystique of the American West: Wild lands teem with abundant and diverse wildlife, family-owned timber mills provide local jobs and wood products, and historic ranches dot the landscape. It is also the place the grizzly bear, caribou, and the ethereal Canada lynx all call home.

Wilderness rich

Yet the rural, wild character of Washington’s last frontier cannot be taken for granted. Given the complexity of modern challenges and the number of stakeholders in the region's land, a proposal for the future and a new and broad conservation approach is quickly becoming necessary.

The Columbia Highlands multimedia tour

Since 2002 we've worked in a unique partnership with timber industry leaders, private landowners, small business owners, public agencies, conservation and recreation groups, and community leaders to conserve thousands of acres of wildlife habitat in the Columbia Highlands on both public and private lands. Conservation Northwest's Columbia Highlands Initiative is putting that balanced plan to action, to protect wilderness and working forests in the region.

We invite you to explore these pages. See "In the Section" on the left, or click the links below to learn more about this unique and multifaceted effort. We also call upon Congress to do its part by designating wilderness and improving forest management on federal land and providing funds to keep intact large working ranches that are rich in habitat. Together, we can protect a vital and often overlooked wildlife heritage in our state.

A place like no other, unique collaboration, proposal for the future.

You make wilderness happen!