Tag Archive for: North Cascades

Wild Sky Wilderness

Connecting With Our Projects Online

June 18, 2021 – Our team is hard at work protecting federally designated wilderness across the western United States by removing the threat of private development, mining and other uses inconsistent with wilderness conservation. With the breadth of our work, it is hard to keep you, our  supporters, informed without flooding your inbox.

Wild Sky Wilderness

The Wild Sky Wilderness in Washington’s North Cascades

To make it easier for you to stay updated on our work in each state, we have added a new state by state project section to our website. I invite you to visit our new Washington state project page, where you’ll find information on the challenges this state faces and what we are doing to protect it.

Washington’s North Cascades are particularly vulnerable to activities that threaten the resiliency of the land, making it more susceptible to the impacts of a changing climate. With ten projects underway in the state — including seven within the Wild Sky and Henry M. Jackson Wilderness areas in the North Cascades — we are removing these threats and permanently protecting this land for future generations to discover, explore and enjoy.

Stay tuned for additional state by state project pages on our website in the coming weeks!

 

Stitching Together Washington’s Wilderness

June 12, 2020 – Imagine a tree that took root 300 years ago, is wider than a car at its base

My recent visit to a project site in Washington’s Wild Sky Wilderness

WLT President Brad Borst on a  recent visit to a project site in Washington’s Wild Sky Wilderness

and nearly as tall as the Statue of Liberty. There are few places in the U.S. where trees have the opportunity to grow this big and this old. One such pocket is in Washington state’s North Cascade Mountains, an area known for its rich diversity of plant and animal species, including old growth forests.

Designated wilderness within the North Cascades, including the Glacier Peak Wilderness, protect old growth forest, salmon and steelhead spawning streams, critical forested watersheds and an abundance of wildlife.

The Wilderness Land Trust made its first Washington state land acquisition within the North Cascades in 1998 when we purchased 62 acres in the Glacier Peak Wilderness. Since then, we’ve acquired 17 properties totaling 946 acres in Washington state and we currently have seven active projects underway.

Our work in Washington state continues to be a priority, with nearly 3,000 acres of private land remaining within the Wild Sky, Henry M. Jackson, Buckhorn, Glacier Peak and Mount Baker Wilderness areas. These private parcels bring the potential for road and property development, mining and logging.

By systematically acquiring these private lands, we are stitching together the landscape, one project at a time, eventually making these wilderness areas whole. I encourage you to check out our project map to find out more about our work in the Northwest and other parts of the country. And if you have the time, I guarantee a trip to one of Washington’s old growth forests won’t disappoint!