CASCADIA BIOREGION PROGRAM
We safeguard ecosystems through advocacy, education, and legal action, promoting a shift away from resource-driven economies while advancing Nature’s rights.
News & Events
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Last Stand Curriculums
To accompany the award-winning documentary, Last Stand, we’ve developed lesson plans and curriculum guides for elementary through university classrooms. Using the film as a foundation for interdisciplinary, interactive learning, the curriculum helps students explore the importance of protecting and stewarding our legacy forests.
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Elwha Watershed Protection: A Call for State Stewardship
Earth Law Center and partners just released a 65 page report that asks the WA Department of Natural Resources to take an ecocentric approach to stewarding the watershed, including by protecting the last 800 acres of its oldest forests. A new conservation area will advance tribal citizens' rights to gather native plants and help safeguard water supplies for the well-being of local residents, endangered salmon, and orcas.
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Protect The Elwha Watershed!
Lower Elwha Klallam Tribal citizens are calling for the protection of the Elwha Watershed from deforestation. Please read and add your name in solidarity!
Our Achievements
Filed first-ever lawsuit with Earth Law Center as a plaintiff (Earth Law Center et al. v. Washington Department of Natural Resources et al.) asserting that by logging legacy forests the state failed in its duty to secure the right to a healthy environment, account for environmental justice concerns, and consider impacts to the entire ecosystem.
Through community organizing and strategic litigation, protected critical forests in the Elwha River Watershed.
Filed an influential amicus brief in Conservation Northwest et al. v. Washington Department of Natural Resources et al., in which the Washington Supreme Court issued a landmark decision recognizing that state forest lands did not have to be logged to generate profits.
With coalition partners achieved recognition of the rights of the Southern Resident Orcas by 8 local governments.
Current Campaigns
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Elwha Legacy Forest
Legacy Forest Protection in Elwha River Watershed and Western Washington
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Southern Resident Orcas
Rights of the Southern Resident Orcas and the ecosystems upon which they depend
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Cedar Sanctuary Project
Calling for the creation of Cedar Tree Sanctuaries to protect the last remaining Western Red Cedar groves.
Downloadable resources for the Cascadia Bioregion Program
Elizabeth Dunne
Cascadia Bioregion
Program Director
Ethan Yarish
Cascadia Bioregion
Law Fellow
Sami Gottsegen
Cascadia Bioregion
Program Associate
Help fund the Cascadia Bioregion Program’s forest conservation efforts and ecocentric law initiatives
Header Photo: Unsplash / Jordan Plihal
News & Events Photo: Unsplash / Nate Bell
Campaigns (left to right): forest2sea.com; Unsplash / Thomas Lipke; Unsplash / Jairo Gallegos;
Resources Photo: Unsplash / Dave Hoefler; Map Photos (1) Lauren Tierney, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (2) Credit: Satellite image. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Footer Photo: Unsplash / Stephen Walker