Cascade Forest Conservancy

In 1985, forest activists created the Gifford Pinchot Task Force to advocate for the protection of natural resources within the National Forest. We became an official 501(c)(3) non-profit in 1997 and in 2016, we changed our name to Cascade Forest Conservancy (CFC) to reflect the expansion of our work to state and private lands. Our mission is to protect and sustain forests, streams, wildlife, and communities in the southwest Washington Cascades through conservation, education, and advocacy. 

CFC protects and defends the southwest Washington Cascades by advocating for wildlife habitat, mitigating the effects of climate change, restoring river-wetland corridors, promoting biodiversity, and protecting threatened and sensitive species. We connect community members to our conservation work through citizen science programs including wildlife camera placement, habitat surveys, and ecosystem restoration. CFC’s other major objectives include protecting the Green River Valley near Mt. St. Helens from exploratory drilling, overseeing timber sales to conserve mature forests and healthy aquatic habitats, and fighting the development of a road through Mt. St. Helen’s Pumice Plain.

We do this work so our region is one where native life–flora, fauna, microbes, the entire biota–thrive in diverse forest and aquatic ecosystems. We strive for a region resilient to the effects of climate change–one that is sustainably managed and supports the economies of flourishing rural communities through recreation, tourism, and competent caring use, so that it may continue to inspire and nourish for centuries to come. Through all our initiatives, we seek strategies that are creative, interdisciplinary, and look at issues from multiple perspectives. For example, our team is fighting potential drilling in the Green River Valley both by pursuing legal remedies and by engaging in a grassroots mineral withdrawal campaign. That campaign includes community members, business leaders, and Tribal representatives in awareness-building events and advocacy. To maximize forest health, we both advocate to minimize harmful extraction and actively restore areas that have already been degraded.

CFC employs a deliberately collaborative approach to all of our conservation work. We are members of two forest management collaborative groups (Pinchot Partners and South Gifford Pinchot Collaborative) and the Spirit Lake Collaborative - all made up of local businesses, state and federal agencies, conservation groups, recreationists, and local Tribes. CFC has closely partnered with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe on projects that benefit traditional first foods -  aquatic restoration to benefit salmon and lamprey, as well as surveys to inform best practices to benefit the huckleberry fields. We are working with both the Cowlitz Indian Tribe and Yakama Nation to address their needs in our efforts to protect the Green River Valley from an open pit mine.  

Our team hosts hundreds of citizen scientists on trips that directly engage them in conservation and restoration work. Recent highlights include placing wildlife cameras, building Beaver Dam Analogs, and collecting native seeds for restoration following severe wildfires. We partner with local businesses and organizations to cross promote aligning missions whenever possible and provide opportunities for the community to learn about and engage with our efforts - recent partnership examples include New Seasons, Patagonia, Mount St. Helens Institute, and 10 Barrel Brewing. Our grassroots campaign events allow community members to take direct action in the protection of the Green River Valley.