Conservation Northwest

Testimonials, continued left to right Northwest Ecosystem Alliance's Christie Clancy, Mary Humphreys, Debbie Craig, and Jodi Broughton in 1999. They helped inspire generous donors to give $18 million to the Loomis Forest Fund, protecting habitat for lynx in north-central Washington. 1999 Conservation NW files Candace Batycki, nelson, BC In 1992, Conservation Northwest, then Greater Ecosys- tem Alliance, hired me to help with the Columbia Mountains conservation plan, and Joe Scott has been my stalwart ally and friend ever since. Seriously, Giuseppe: 22 years? at's a lot of conference calls, lobbying trips, hikes in wild places, and belly laughs. For ten of those years I was with ForestEthics, working in coalition with Joe and others to protect mountain caribou habi- tat. Now I'm helping Conservation Northwest with a new con- servation plan for the Columbia Mountains, one that considers the potential impacts of climate change. anks Conservation Northwest, from all us northern critters! Pauline Hillaire, Bellingham Pauline Hillaire, an honored elder of the Lummi Nation, worked as our first office manager. She has retired and is living in a rest home in Bellingham aer recently winning a National En- dowment for the Arts heritage award for her cultural work (arts. gov/honors/heritage/fellows/pauline-hillaire). Our thoughts and thanks go out to Pauline. Reese lolley, Yakima Working at Greater Ecosystem Alliance my first year out of college provided me with a great appreciation for computer- ized GIS! (I coordinated volunteers to create color maps of habitats of concern to make recommendations for increasing amount of B.C. Parks, before GIS was computerized.) In all seriousness, working with Conservation Northwest had a piv- otal influence on my career and life-experiencing and under- standing the power of working with passionate people, the im- portance of science, and how compatible and powerful these factors are together in creating lasting conservation outcomes. Reese is Eastern Washington forests program director with e Nature Conservancy. More Testimonials, next page The Nelson family Conservation Northwest has conserved wildlands and wildlife by bringing people together to find com- mon ground around shared values. I worked on that collaborative vision from 2001 to 2006. Our work halted old-growth logging on the Gifford Pin- chot National Forest by articulating a new restoration vision with the collab- orative Pinchot Partners. Conservation Northwest's lead on collaboration with the multi-stakeholder Skokomish Wa- tershed Action Team also restored the cut-over and flood-prone Skokomish River on the Olympic National Forest. Conservation Northwest can claim launch of the Nelson family, too! Pete and I met while scouting road de- commissioning opportunities in the Cowlitz watershed, and our common ground was established over coffee in Randle's Big Bottom Bar and Grill. Af- A collaborative vision, ten years on ter working for Pacific Crest Biodiver- sity Project (Biodiversity Northwest) from 1998 to 2003, Pete also worked for Conservation Northwest in 2003. Ten years on, we still derive deep satisfaction and inspiration hearing about Conservation Northwest's latest forest conservation and restoration efforts. The discussion has become even more profound for us now, as our two sons, Willem and Charlie, bring new meaning to the legacy of protect- ing and restoring wild places. Today, Pete serves as senior policy ad- visor to Defenders of Wildlife, working on forests and wildlife. Since I left Con- servation Northwest, I have worked on a variety of issues, including Arctic governance, the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and climate adaptation in the Crown of the Continent region. Through it all, I have relied on the skills I learned from Mitch, Dave, and the rest of the crew: be tenacious, be creative, take risks, have faith in the power of collaboration, and believe in your vision. These fundamentals are the reason Conservation Northwest has been successfully rewilding the Northwest for the last 25 years. –Regan Nelson, Bozeman, MT 25th anniversary 10 Spring-summer 2014 conservationnw.org

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