Wildlife & Habitat
Wildlife and habitat for wildlife go hand in hand. You can't have one without the other.
Habitat is home for plants and animals
Our region is especially diverse and vibrant because of its wildlife. Wild animals are excellent indicators of the health of our forests and watersheds. Protecting wildlife means protecting habitat. It means ensuring safe passage and connectivity between wild places.
Conservation Northwest makes sure that wild animals from the Washington Coast to the BC Rockies have intact and functioning places to live. We work with local land managers to encourage practices that benefit threatened and endangered wildlife, and we use existing laws such as the Endangered Species Act to protect threatened wildlife.
Our citizens' monitoring project uses winter snow tracking and remote cameras to document forest wildlife presence in Washington. Our work with the Washington Wildlife Habitat Connectivity Working Group is helping connect important habitat as a future for our native wildlife.
From the top down
Our special focus is on the large carnivores of the Northwest, including
gray wolf, grizzly bear, lynx,
fisher, and wolverine. But we also safeguard ungulates, like mountain caribou, and the smaller fry. Protecting the larger animals near the top of the food chain helps the many other plants and animals that depend upon the same natural habitat, from northern spotted owl to marbled murrelet to Taylor’s checkerspot butterfly to western gray squirrel. 
Native ecosystems support a wealth of ecosystem services, from storing carbon to promoting rich soils to keeping rivers, streams, and lakes clear and clean.
Campaigns for wildlife
We've helped reintroduce fisher to the Olympic Peninsula, protect mountain caribou habitat, and create a management plan for gray wolves that are returning on their own to Washington. In northeastern Washington we work with hunters and anglers on conservation strategies to best protect habitat for elk, deer, moose, sage grouse, native trout, like bull trout, as well as grizzly bear and lynx. Together, we're protecting the lands that wild animals rely upon to live.
