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Here’s a snapshot of our accomplishments from the last year.
Wildlands
- Continued to build momentum to protect over 500,000 acres with the Crater Lake Wilderness campaign. This year saw our list of endorsing businesses grow to over 200 in addition to tens of thousands of individual petition signatures. In April, we hosted a Crater Lake Wilderness forum in Roseburg, which included supportive comments from Crater Lake Superintendent, Craig Ackerman, in front of a packed room of over 60 people.
- While we push the Crater Lake Wilderness campaign, we also made sure to keep 25 miles of trails inside the roadless lands that make up the proposed Crater Lake Wilderness free of motorized recreation through the Umpqua Motorized Travel Management Plan.
- We also launched the Ochoco Mountains National Recreation Area campaign to protect traditional recreation on over 300,000 acres and safeguard over 25,000 acres as Wilderness.
- Through our forest watchdog program we:
- stopped proposed logging at the Vista Ridge trailhead on Mount Hood;
- worked with partner groups to scale back proposed logging in Bend’s drinking watershed;
- won our lawsuit with Cascadia Wildlands challenging the White Castle Timber Sale and sparing 160 acres of hundred year old trees from logging;
- and, through comments, appeals, and objections, spared hundreds of acres from logging all across Oregon.
- Generated over 1,100 grassroots comments on BLM’s Western Oregon Plan Revision effort.
- Worked with partners to mount the first serious legislative challenge to Oregon’s antiquated Forest Practice Act by championing a bill limiting aerial pesticide spraying after logging.
- Collected and released images of threatened backyard forests in partnership with the Google Trekker program.
Wildlife
- Organized and executed our first ever Wildlife Lobby Day, with 40 attendees coming to Salem to meet with legislators and advocate for pro-wildlife policy.
- Launched Wild Ones, a wildlife activist network and training resource, with 100 members and growing. Subsequently we developed an activist curriculum for Wild Ones and held a series of 8 classes to teach people the ins and outs of how to participate in public processes.
- Defeated HB3515, which would have delisted wolves permanently from the Oregon Endangered Species Act.
- Brought a legal challenge against the National Marine Fisheries Service for their failure to draft a recovery plan for coastal coho salmon.
Waters
- Launched the Oregon Brewshed® Alliance along with 7 brewery/beer community charter members in April and more than doubled membership in less than 5 months, growing to 15 partners and raising nearly $9,000 since launch.
- Convinced a U.S. District Court judge to hold the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service accountable by demanding that the agency release a Comprehensive Conservation Plan for Klamath refuges by August 2016. This could be the best chance in years to reform leaseland commercial farming on 22,000 acres of refuge land.
- Filed suit against illegal grazing that harms water quality in the Sycan River watershed.
- Worked with the Governor’s office and the Oregon State Parks Department to bring the Molalla and Chetco Rivers just a few steps away from State Scenic Waterways protection.
Connecting People to Wild Places
- Hosted the first Crater Lake Wolf Rendezvous and sixth annual Wallowa Wolf Rendezvous, taking intrepid adventurers to see Oregon’s wolf country for themselves.
- Hosted the Oregon Wilderness Conference with keynote speaker Ken Brower along with our first ever Wilderness Block Party where hundreds gathered to celebrate Oregon’s wildlands.
- Led 50 hikes for the public, including a week long hike series in the Crater Lake Wilderness Proposal, five partner hikes, three trail runs, and one brewshed® hike, and re-launched the Oregon Wild Outdoor Program for the Bend area.
- Hosted nine Oregon Wild Wednesdays in Portland, Eugene, and Bend featuring guest speakers ranging from outdoor writers to adventurers.
Connected with new supporters at ten different community events across the state. - Hosted four film screenings across the state on topics ranging from wolves to forests.
- Hosted and participated in 12 Oregon Brewshed® Alliance happy hours, beer releases, pint nights, community talks, hikes, and festivals with partners.
