Washington Wild

Mission
Washington Wild protects and restores wild lands and waters in Washington State through advocacy, education, and civic engagement.

About Us

Celebrating our 45th year of keeping Washington wild, Washington Wild was founded to lead state-wide efforts to provide permanent protection for our federal lands and waters through Wilderness and Wild & Scenic River designations. By educating, empowering, and mobilizing our communities, Washington Wild builds powerful grassroots networks that help protect wild places for all throughout the state. 

We believe that public lands are public issues. Our supporters share our philosophy that Washington's remaining wild lands have intrinsic value and are essential to our quality of life. Since 1979, Washington Wild has played an invaluable role in permanently protecting nearly three million acres of Wilderness throughout Washington State. Recent designations include the Wild Sky Wilderness (2008), which protected over 106,000 acres of forest, and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Additions (2014) that protected more than 22,000 acres of pristine low-elevation forest and nearly 40 miles of the Pratt and North Fork Snoqualmie as Wild & Scenic Rivers.

Since 2009, we have been advocating for new Wilderness (more than 126,000 acres) and Wild & Scenic River (more than 460 river miles) designations through the Olympic Peninsula-based Wild Olympics Campaign, of which Washington Wild is a founding member. Introduced by Sen. Murray and Rep. Kilmer, if passed, the Wild Olympics legislation would designate the first Wilderness in Olympic National Forest in more than 30 years, and the first-ever Wild and Scenic Rivers on the Olympic Peninsula. This is an exceptional opportunity to preserve these wild, unique, and beautiful places as a natural legacy for future generations.

We also just celebrated a major win with the designation of Washington's first-ever 'Outstanding' Rivers! A component of the federal Clean Water Act (1972), Outstanding Resource Water (ORW) designation protects the water quality of waterways deemed an outstanding state resource due to their exceptional water quality, statewide ecological importance, and/or unique recreational value. Building a diverse coalition of more than 240 stakeholders over 4 years, this past December we celebrated the WA Department of Ecology's decision to designate the Napeequa, Green, and Cascade Rivers as ORWs.