Auction inspiration from Mitch Friedman

Last week more than 250 Conservation Northwest supporters gathered for a night of fun and fundraising south of Seattle at our 7th annual Hope for a Wild Future auction. Inspiration abounded that night as all those great supporters did their part to raise about $147,000 to connect wild landscapes across the northwest!

For me, the biggest inspiration, after our amazing donors and volunteers, was the program for the evening. Martha Kongsgaard gathered everyone to dinner with what might be the funniest song ever sung at an auction and John Curley waited in the wings for an energetic live auction. Sally Hintz read a letter from Senator Maria Cantwell, who applauded our work thus far and assured she would be honored to introduce legislation for wilderness and balance in the Columbia Highlands when the time was right. You can read the entirety of Senator Cantwell's letter here (PDF).

Then, as if that weren't inspiration enough...  This image lit up the screen and Mitch took the stage.

Mitch Friedman's remarks, June 10 Hope for a Wild Future auction, Seattle.

Welcome, my friends, to our seventh of these annual events. I always look forward to this evening and to seeing all of you, sharing good news from our many programs across the Northwest, and raising funds for our big plans. I want to thank Martha Kongsgaard, our MC, John Curly, our auctioneer, and the event staff led by Rachel Livingston, Jodi Broughton and Paul Bannick for a great night.

This photo landed on my screen yesterday. In the high country of the Loomis State Forest, in north central Washington, a litter of lynx kits watches spring approach.

The picture belongs on a poster, hung in my daughters’ room, with a cheesy inspirational caption like “Hang in there baby.”

These kits don’t know about the oil slick in the Gulf, the Tea Party, or Wall Street reform. They don’t know that their kind was trapped nearly to extinction in northeastern Washington in the 1970’s, or that they themselves would likely not exist if we hadn’t, with your help, saved their Loomis home from logging in 1999, banned trapping in 2000, and gained them protection under the Endangered Species Act.

Nonetheless, this remains a tough time to grow up a lynx. Trapping continues on the Canadian side of the border, though we recently initiated dialogue on the matter between Washington wildlife officials and their BC counterparts. And climate change is diminishing the amount of lynx habitat here in the Lower 48, the southern edge of their range. The diminishing extent of their habitat requires us to link together natural areas that contain lynx, most pressingly the Cascades to Rockies habitat connection that is now the primary focus of Conservation Northwest.

These kits, so innocent, wouldn’t know that their fate depends on us; all of you who enable our every move at Conservation Northwest.

Quality scientific research gives us a good picture of how to secure the Washington portion of the Cascades to Rockies habitat link, which we pursue through our Columbia Highlands Initiative. We must protect key habitat on both private and public lands.

We work on private lands mainly by obtaining conservation easements on specific ranches so that their habitat is forever safe from development. For instance, we are raising federal, state, and private funds to purchase development and mineral rights from Bryan Gotham, a rancher in the Kettle Range. Bryan is thankful for this essential revenue, an alternative to selling part of his ranch into blue tarp ranchettes, or digging a huge pit mine near Sherman Pass to uncover a gold vein.

With our help, Bryan will keep intact his part of the Cascades to Rockies habitat, ready for safe passage by these kits or their cousins.

The second big thing is to protect that part of the Cascades to Rockies corridor that is on the Colville National Forest. We have done proud work with the timber industry and other partners to achieve a broadly supported plan. That plan provides balance like a stool with three legs. Those legs are timber management near roads and towns, wilderness protection in the backcountry, and restoration of old growth forest in between.

I am pleased that Senator Cantwell and other national leaders have recognized the quality of our cutting edge work. For over six years we have done much to advance the timber and restoration legs of the stool. But without the third leg of wilderness, the stool cannot stand. Only Congress can provide that third leg.

I am very thankful to the senator and to Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers, and to their excellent staffs, for the work they’ve done on this issue since last summer, hosting a forum in Spokane, convening a stakeholder roundtable, and much more. I have expressed optimism that this would be the year for a Columbia Highlands Wilderness Bill in Congress, and that may yet be the case. I would have dearly loved to announce such news tonight.

As you just heard, the Senator is in our corner, but feels the time is not yet right. Notwithstanding our coalition work with timber and other community leaders, there remain things that the senator and congresswoman are not quite comfortable with. They want to assure that when a bill is launched, it can make the smoothest possible passage through an environment in Congress that is perhaps more treacherous than even that faced by our little lynx friends.

We are doing fast work to address the concerns while also continuing to broaden our coalition. Just last week, two ranchers led congressional staff on a field tour and expressed positive views about wilderness, which is new and much needed.

We will continue our collaboration for overall balance in the woods of northeastern Washington; a stool with three legs. At the same time, we must raise substantial private funds to solve other problems in the Cascades to Rockies corridor, including on the Gotham Ranch. We must also take action to defend the forest from abuse by off road vehicles and others threats, and we must enhance our outreach from Republic to Spokane to Seattle, so our elected leaders hear directly from the community that the right time for wilderness is now.

I know the time is right, because I hear it in the voices of our partners, from timber leaders like Maurice Williamson to ranchers like John Dawson. I know the time is right because a grizzly bear was recently photographed in BC, a suspected wolverine den was observed last weekend on Mt. Baker, and there are these kittens in the Loomis. The time is right: I see it in your faces tonight!

After 30 years of diligent work towards this goal, the time must be right. So please help us redouble our effort, amplify our voice, and demand a safe future for these lynx.

Thank you, Mitch, for the inspiration.

If you were unable to make the auction, please ensure the future of these lynx and all of the northwest's wildest places with a gift today.