Wins for wildlife and wildlands in 2019

Wins for wildlife and wildlands in 2019

Conservation Northwest / Jan 22, 2020 / Restoring Wildlife, Work Updates

By Chase Gunnell, Communications Director

To all our members, volunteers, advocates and partners, our team at Conservation Northwest hopes you’re enjoying a happy start to 2020! Your steadfast support makes our work keeping the Northwest wild possible.

As we dive into a new year of protecting, connecting and restoring wildlife and wildlands across Washington and southern British Columbia, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all that we accomplished together in 2019, our 30th Anniversary.

Check out our graphic on accomplishments from the last year below, or visit our webpage to learn more!

You can also watch our anniversary video 30 Years Wilder on YouTube or Facebook.

30 years ago in Bellingham, my boss Mitch Friedman founded Conservation Northwest with a vision of bringing activists, agencies and other stakeholders—even those we might not always agree with like loggers and ranchers—together to find common ground to build on, collaborating for win-wins and a wilder, healthier future in the greater Pacific Northwest.

In my six years with this organization, no period has exemplified that strategic vision more than 2019. Thousands of you took action with us to permanently protect crown jewels including Blanchard Mountain and the Methow Headwaters. Nearly 150 volunteers restored habitat and trails in the Central Cascades and Sagelands, while more than one hundred more monitored for rare wildlife like wolverines and wolves.

Despite today’s challenges, together we’re achieving what Mitch and other early environmental leaders only dreamed of: successfully reintroducing fishers to Washington, celebrating the success of wildlife crossings on I-90 at Snoqualmie Pass and creating safer passage on Highway 97 in the Okanogan Valley, and working with local communities to promote coexistence with wolves and grizzly bears in Washington and British Columbia.

Chase speaking at an event in Seattle.

Thank you for making this and so much more possible for Northwest wildlife and wildlands. We have our work cut out for us in 2020, but I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together.

With gratitude,

Chase Gunnell
Communications Director

P.S. If you’re looking for one more thing to make you optimistic about the future of our Northwest natural heritage, watch our YouTube playlist of fishers returning to the Washington. This month, we completed our 18-year program to reintroduce this native species thanks to the dedicated support of our members and donors.

Together, we can do great things!

A fisher being released at Mount Rainier in January 2020. Photo: Kevin Bacher, National Park Service