Spokane's "Hope for a Wild Future"

Thursday evening, September 27th, join us for a gala event at the Davenport Hotel in Spokane and an evening of wine, art, dinner, and spirited bidding to highlight the

Keynote speaker Brock Evans , a legendary wilderness advocate and major leader in the conservation movement since the late '60s, was involved in the creation of North Cascades National Park and later helped secure protection for the Salmo-Priest Wilderness. Our emcee for the evening is Spokane sportswoman Jeanna Hofmeister, vice president of the Spokane Regional Convention and Visitors Bureau. Please join us!

 

 

 

Restoring Fisher to the Olympic Peninsula

In 2004 Conservation Northwest teamed up with the Department of Fish and Wildlife to bring Pacific fisher back to Washington's forests. That visionary work is now coming to fruition as the Olympic National Park releases a plan to reintroduce fisher. It's an exciting opportunity to restore the full suite of wildlife that once roamed the Olympic wilderness, and if successful the plan could provide a template for restoring fisher to the Cascade Mountains and the Kettle River Range.

As part of the plan an extensive habitat search in the state determined that the best place for fisher was the peninsula and the old-growth forests of the Elwha, Sol Duc, Bogachiel, Hoh, Queets, and Quinault. As the Park says, "95% of the park is designated wilderness; without fishers a key wilderness value is absent." We're excited to welcome them back! In the next couple of weeks, check our website for an opportunity to comment on this exciting plan to recover fisher.

 

Taking the High Road

Roads connect people to places but they also deeply affect the connections of our natural systems as well as the health of fish and wildlife. Roads fragment habitat, spread invasive weeds, and clog waterways with eroded soil. Yet these negative road impacts can be lessened. Passages built over or under roads convey wildlife safely across roads, and temporary roads can be decommissioned.

Conservation Northwest is working to address the sometimes thorny topic of roads, from Washington's highway system to roads in our national forests. This summer we teamed with the Washington State Department of Transportation to begin developing a statewide wildlife connectivity plan to make roads safer for people and wildlife. We're also working with the Wenatchee-Okanogan National Forest to address pressing restoration needs in the forest, creating a tool to help analyze the impact of temporary roads on public lands and wildlife.

 

 

 

 

Working Together for Wildlife

On September 10th Conservation Northwest hosted our first annual "Wild Links" conference at Central Washington University around the theme, Washington Cascades: I-90 and North. More than 50 people working to conserve and connect habitat and wildlife came together to discuss the larger landscape questions facing the North Cascades, including climate change.

Researchers updated the audience on current wildlife studies, focusing on wolverines in the Methow, small mammals in our dry forests, and lynx and recent fires in the north-central Cascades. Also at the briefing, local land trusts, nonprofits, and unique partnerships highlighted their current work to connect habitat, recover big wildlife, reintroduce fire to better manage our landscape, monitor wildlife activity around I-90, and, overall, better inform conversations about the Washington Cascades north of I-90.