Conservation & Advocacy

Each year, the Seattle Naturalist Committee provides a lecture series designed to delve into phenomena of the natural world. The events are open to everyone and no registration is required - just pay $5 at the door. Attendance is free for members of the Naturalist Study Group. Check out this season's talks! Read more…

Last week, the Public Lands Heist paid a surprise visit to Washington State in the form of an amendment to Senate Bill 6140. Today, after hearing from hundreds of concerned Washingtonians, the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee will remove the bill’s disconcerting public lands provisions. Read more…

The Mountaineers are proud to present the BeWild Speaker Series, putting passion and adventure on the stage! Come to these talks to unlock inspiration to seek adventure, connect with nature, and work to protect the wild places we cherish. This March we welcome photographer Joe Riis. Read more…

Mount Rainier National Park has a new leader: Chip Jenkins, a 31-year veteran of the National Park Service (NPS), will serve as the park’s superintendent beginning in mid-March. He takes over for Randy King, who retired in January. Read more…

The recent resignation of nearly the entire National Park System (NPS) Advisory Board raises serious concerns about the Department of the Interior, the office in charge of overseeing about 500 million acres of our national public lands. Read more…

The Liberty Bell Group, a cluster of five granite spires at Washington Pass outside Mazama, is home to some of the most popular and iconic alpine climbing in Washington State, including classics like the Beckey Route on Liberty Bell and the West Face of North Early Winter Spire. Over the last decade, the area has become increasingly popular among alpine climbers. This rapidly expanding use has led to deteriorating trail conditions, severe erosion, and unsafe approaches to and from the climbs. Read more…

You’ve likely heard the news: the President signed a proclamation to shrink two of our national monuments, Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante, located in southeast Utah. In total, the proclamation cuts 2 million acres from the monuments. So what do these drastic reductions mean for The Mountaineers, public lands, and the outdoor experience? Read more…

As you’ve probably heard, the president recently signed a proclamation to drastically reduce the size of two national monuments in Utah. This unprecedented action undermines the 1906 Antiquities Act, the law granting presidents the authority to create national monuments to protect cultural, natural and scientific resources. Read more…

Northern Pygmy-Owls must enlarge their territories in the winter when prey becomes less abundant. Small mammals are harder to find, reptiles and amphibians are in hibernation, and many small birds have migrated. And so these owls often move downslope to places along waterways or near bird feeders, where there is a greater concentration of passerines and rodents. Read more…

Last month, we invited you to join us in contributing funds to save a section of the Lake Serene Trail from logging. This month we’re happy to report the goal was met! Together with Forterra and other organizations we raised $275,000 to purchase the land from the timber company, ensuring that the area is conserved and recreational access is never again restricted. Read more…

What happens if visiting national parks becomes prohibitively expensive? Fewer people have the opportunity to fall in love with and become champions of wild places – and our public lands suffer as a result. Read more…

Several have asked (and many others no doubt have wondered), "What is going on with the Friction Slab Project?" Read more…

The march to protect the Methow Valley from industrial-scale mining continues to move forward, and we’re at a critical juncture. We need your support! The Forest Service has opened a public comment period on a mineral withdrawal that would protect the Methow Watershed for twenty years. Comments are due by November 6. Read more…

A new bill, misleadingly named the “National Monument Creation and Protection Act,” has been introduced that would effectively gut the Antiquities Act, the bedrock conservation law that gives presidents the authority to create National Monuments. From the Grand Canyon to Bears Ears and the San Juan Islands, presidents from both parties have used the Antiquities Act to protect many of our most beloved wild places through National Monument designation. Read more…

Lands adjacent to the Lake Serene Trail are slated to be logged this year. If the plan goes through, the routes to Lake Serene and Bridal Veil Falls will be closed until July 1, 2018 and the surrounding forest will be scarred for many years to come. But there’s hope. Outdoor leaders, including The Mountaineers, are joining forces with individuals across the Pacific Northwest to purchase the land from the timber company. Together we can raise the funds, but we aren’t there yet – and we need your help! Read more…

“History tells us that when public lands are unprotected, they’re sold to the highest bidder." - Rose Marcario, President and CEO of Patagonia, delivers her keynote address at The Mountaineers fundraising breakfast, Sep 20 Read more…

If you were one of hundreds of Mountaineers who woke up early on Wednesday to join us for our second annual fundraising breakfast, Thank You! This early morning adventure to downtown Seattle brought hundreds of outdoor enthusiasts together to celebrate and champion our public lands. The messages shared inspired us with renewed commitment to protect our wild places. As our CEO Tom Vogl said: Read more…

After weeks of uncertainty, a leaked report from Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke has reignited concerns about the fate of National Monuments and what this could mean for our public lands. The memo, titled Final Report Summarizing Findings of the Review of Designations Under the Antiquities Act, doesn’t specify boundary changes, but does issue clear recommendations to shrink or alter ten National Monuments. Read more…

This August, while backpacking through the Hoover Wilderness in California with my husband and brother-in-law, I ran into a woman about my age. She was headed down the trail in our direction so we hiked together a few miles, chatting about our work, her Pacific Crest Trail thru-hike the previous summer, and our mutual love of solo trips. She was a teacher out on a three-day trip before the school year started back up. I told her about my work with Outdoor Alliance and our efforts to bring together the outdoor recreation community to protect public lands.  Read more…

A picture is worth a thousand words, but the images collected in The Alpine Lakes are worth even more than that. The photographs in this book, published by The Mountaineers in 1971, inspired President Gerald Ford to designate the Alpine Lakes Wilderness area. Read more…

The Elwha River, which spans 45 miles in the Olympic Peninsula, is part of a massive restoration project that included demolishing Glines Canyon Dam, one of the tallest dams to ever be intentionally breached. Read more…

For over a century, The Mountaineers has inspired conservation and stewardship of our public lands through our outdoor education programs and books. Today, we build on this tradition by taking responsibility for protecting the places that inspire, excite, and challenge us. The Mountaineers is uniquely positioned to define and grow the modern conservation movement by providing powerful outdoor experiences that enable people to gain special connections to these places and the desire to protect them. We instill stewardship and Leave-No-Trace wilderness ethics through the educational components of our courses and provide opportunities to learn and engage in conservation issues – practices that ignite passion and action in current and future generations of conservationists.  Read more…

My generation thought it had a pretty good notion of what stewardship meant the first time we got a look at the pictures of earth taken by the astronauts.  Read more…

To truly care about something, it has to have impacted you intimately. It’s that personal connection that gives us the impetus to act. Read more…

It’s been about three months since an Executive Order called for the review of our National Monuments, two months since the 60-day public comment period began, and a little over a week since the last of over a million submissions flooded the Department of the Interior.

So now what? Read more…

Ahhh, there’s nothing like heading out on your favorite trail to take in the fragrant smells of spring... only to catch the putrid stench of crap. Dog and human alike — it seems lately there’s been a proliferation of poo plopped along our trails and streams of toilet paper flowers soiling our backcountry. And this abundance of trailside turds isn’t just an affront on our visionary and olfactory senses, it’s a major affront to our health and the health of our wild places. Read more…

In April, President Trump issued an executive order calling for a review of National Monuments designated under the Antiquities Act. Following the order, The Department of the Interior announced a public comment period for 27 specific National Monuments designated in the last 21 years. This review is unprecedented, and we encourage you to speak up in defense of these important public lands. Read more…

In her first class with The Mountaineers, Maiza Lima was impressed to learn that all classes were taught by volunteers, and all trips were led by volunteers. “It’s hard to believe people give so much time to be there for you.” She was so amazed she said to herself, “Next year, I will volunteer.” Read more…

Some people have a defining moment in the outdoors that changed their lives. I don’t. I can recount a vague memory of camping with my dad, and him pulling me out of the tent in my pajamas to hike under a full moon. I can tell you that you couldn’t keep me out of waterfalls as a kid, that climbing for the first time as a sixth-grader blew my socks off, and that learning how to crack climb in Indian Creek, Utah 20 years later was completely humbling and inspiring. What I know is that our public lands are integral to who I am, and because of that I believe it’s imperative that we protect these places and the experiences they provide, and that we work to provide opportunities for everyone to have nature-based experiences. Read more…

I’ve been a member of The Mountaineers since 2002, when I joined to meet other outdoor enthusiasts and learn about hikes in the area. Since then I’ve explored many of our local trails year-round.  Read more…