As our I-90 Wildlife Corridor Campaign sunsets, we are increasing our focus on forest and watershed restoration in this larger landscape between the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and Mount Rainier National Park.
Improving water quality, addressing impacts of human recreation and more; 2022 updates from the Central Cascades Watersheds Restoration program
Our Central Cascades Watersheds Restoration program works to restore habitat on public lands north and south of Interstate 90 that are vital to wildlife movement between Mount Rainier National Park and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness.
The program is a focused complement to our ongoing Forest Field Program that will work in watersheds spanning both sides of the Cascade Crest. Our Forest Field Program has a much longer history in the watersheds east of the Cascades, while this program is in the early phase of building relationships in the Puget Sound region west of the crest.
For the past 20 years, we have focused on maintaining and restoring habitat connectivity in the “bottleneck” around Snoqualmie Pass that is the primary linkage between Washington’s north and south Cascade Mountains. Through The Cascades Conservation Partnership, we purchased and protected 45,000 acres of private forest threatened with development that is now public land, and through our I-90 Wildlife Corridor Campaign we led a coalition to successfully advocate for over twenty wildlife crossings to allow animals safer passage, while also leading wildlife monitoring and habitat restoration in key areas near the interstate.
Now, in this new program, we turn our attention to restoring quality habitat on the vast adjacent public lands for wildlife to live and move through this landscape, and for people to sustainably enjoy this important piece of our Northwest natural heritage near to growing communities.
News on Central Cascades watersheds and habitat
- August 2021: Collaboration moves the Snoquera Project forward in Central Cascades
- August 2021: Learn about the Snoqualmie Tribe Ancestral Lands Movement
- April 2021: Speak up for restoration funding on national forests
- December 2020: I-90 wildlife crossing restoration, recreation outreach and more; 2020 updates from the Central Cascades Watersheds Restoration program
- July 2020: Shaping the Future of Recreation in Snoquera, Washington Trails Association
- June 2020: Little Crow Restoration Project moves forward in Cascades east of Chinook Pass
- April 2020: Response to final Snoquera Landscape Analysis decision
- April 2020: Comments on Gold Creek Valley Restoration Project
- March 2020: Restoring Gold Creek in the Central Cascades
- December 2019: Central Cascades Watersheds Restoration season wrap-up
- November 2019: Snoquera Decision – What it means for Central Cascades watersheds
- August 2019: Forging new partnerships in the Central Cascades
- June 2019: Central Cascades Field Tour with congressional staff, the Bullitt Foundation, The Wilderness Society and others
- February 2019: Comments on Snoquera forest project in Central Cascades
- November 2018: Small but significant: restoring habitat in the Central Cascades
- October 2018: Restoring habitat in the I-90 Wildlife Corridor
Program Context
Between the Alpine Lakes Wilderness to the north and Mount Rainier National Park to the south, this program focuses primarily on the lands of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie and Okanogan-Wenatchee national forests, including the headwaters of nine watersheds: South Fork Snoqualmie River, Cedar River, Upper Green River, Upper White River, Kachess River-Yakima River, Cle Elum River, Teanaway River, Taneum Creek-Yakima River, and Little Naches River.
While our primary focus is on the uplands in these watersheds, we will work with partners to complete relevant restoration work across these watersheds.
The goals of this program over the life of our current 2017-2022 Strategic Plan are to:
- Promote and uphold policies that prioritize ecological restoration and wildlife connectivity,
- Complete restoration blueprints that cover restoration actions on U.S. Forest Service (USFS) lands that meaningfully improve wildlife connectivity and watershed function in four of the six most degraded watersheds,
- Generate and direct public and private funding to implement restoration blueprints, and
- Prioritize restoration projects that are catalytic or spatially-critical to improve wildlife connectivity and wildlands values.
Although our primary focus is on the upland portions of watersheds that contribute most to north-south wildlife connectivity in the Central Cascades, we will also work through existing collaboratives and watershed groups to ensure our efforts add value in the larger context of this landscape. Collaborative bodies that we’ll work within for this program include the Tapash Sustainable Forest Collaborative (and within that the Little Naches Working Group), Upper Yakima Watershed Action Group, and Water Resource Inventory Area planning bodies for the Green-Duwamish and Puyallup-White watersheds.
A key component, work in all these watersheds will be coordination with the Yakama Nation, Muckleshoot, Tulalip and Snoqualmie tribes, and other indigenous peoples. Primary NGO partner organizations include American Rivers, Forterra, The Nature Conservancy, The Wilderness Society, and Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust.
