Conservation Blog

Tomorrow, the US House of Representatives will take up an incredible lands package, Protecting America’s Wilderness Act, which includes additional protections for the Wild Olympics Wilderness and Wild and Scenic Rivers Act here in Washington State. The act will protect over one hundred thousand acres around the Olympic National Park where outdoor enthusiasts, including Mountaineers, hike, camp, and more. We need your support to get this important bill passed in Congress! Read more…

According to Olympia Mountaineer Jim French: "as Mountaineers, we may have been the first to see changes in our environment and they have been catastrophic. The signs aren't good. Well, the smart gambler says, 'let's not take that chance. Maybe we should be doing something.'" Read more…

The current administration recently announced a plan to rewrite the rules for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that would greatly limit public participation and environmental considerations during project proposals and reviews. Read more…

For more than six years, Katherine Hollis has been leading our conservation and advocacy efforts. She's transformed the way we engage in national policy issues, served as an influential and highly-respected voice on important regional work, and has engaged our Mountaineers community in many critical conservation efforts. In January, she'll be leaving The Mountaineers, and we're so grateful for the incredible impact Katherine has made while she was here.  Read more…

Do you remember when you first fell in love with the outdoors? As the middle of five children growing up on Lake Winnepesaukee in New Hampshire in the 70s, I was encouraged to play outside all day. The water was so clean that we drank straight from the lake. I realized from a young age the importance of having close access to the outdoors for body and mind. Read more…

Washington is a haven for birders, and yet we still have huge gaps in our understanding of some of our most iconic wildlife. Take the White-tailed Ptarmigan for example. Many of you have likely spotted ptarmigan in the Cascades in their summer plumage, blending in with their rocky alpine habitat, but reports of these beautiful birds in their all-white winter plumage are few and far between. As a result, our knowledge of White-tailed Ptarmigan winter habitats in the Pacific Northwest are meager. Read more…

In the six years I’ve served as The Mountaineers Conservation and Advocacy Director, I’ve watched our community come together time and again to speak up for the places we hold dear. Together, we’ve enjoyed a number of successes, and suffered a few setbacks. Threats to our public lands, including the climate crisis, are mounting, and as someone whose life has been formed by adventuring in nature, I am concerned about what our planet will be like for future generations. Read more…

Perhaps you remember us sharing information about the Roadless Rule previously – it’s an important (and lesser-known) tool that protects wild landscapes on US Forest Service lands. As outdoor enthusiasts, we know our community cares about both conservation and recreation, and the Roadless Rule is vitally important for both. Right now the Forest Service wants to hear what you think about their proposal to exempt the Tongass National Forest in Alaska from the Roadless Rule. Read more…

Love for our public lands and waters is the heart of our Mountaineers community, and we work to protect these landscapes and make them accessible to everyone. We encourage you to join us and many other outdoor enthusiasts across the country in signing the pledge to protect national public lands and waters. Read more…

The Big Thaw: Ancient Carbon, Modern Science, and Race to Save the World introduces the scientists and students studying Arctic permafrost and what it contains: a vast store of ancient carbon, more than four times the quantity found in all of today's forests, a ticking carbon bomb releasing carbon dioxide and methane as the permafrost thaws. Through Chris Linder's stunning photographs, we meet the people and processes at work across remarkable Arctic landscapes from Siberia to Alaska's Y-K Delta.  Read more…

Since 2015, REI has closed its stores on Black Friday, paying their employees to #OptOutside instead. At The Mountaineers, we couldn't love the idea more. Our employees have always enjoyed the day after Thanksgiving as a vacation day, and two paid stewardship days each year to take care of their favorite places to play. We believe going outside is not just good for your health - but good for your soul.  Read more…

 The following is excerpted from  We Are Puget Sound, a new book from Mountaineers Books conservation imprint, Braided River.  We Are Puget Sound highlights the ways in which we are affected by and dependent on this body of water—the beating heart of the region. Read more…

Those of us who build and maintain trails don’t want you to know what we’ve done. We’re eager for you to hear birds, see mountains and forests, feel the wind in your face, and safely reach your destination. We want you to drink in the backcountry so completely that you barely notice the tread rolling beneath your boots. Read more…

September 28, 2019, was National Public Lands Day - a newly-minted state holiday in Washington, through the unanimously-passed House Bill 1449, which we were proud to support. This day offered outdoor  enthusiasts and members of The Mountaineers fee-free access to our federal public lands, and in the spirit of the day some spent their time giving back to the places they love.  Read more…

It's always risky to plan an outdoor autumn event in the Pacific Northwest, but our daring paid off on September 25 because we couldn't have asked for better weather. Our Cocktails for Conservation event ran from 5-9pm, giving each attendee exclusive access to Mountaineering Club's rooftop bar and a complimentary drink. Read more…

To further The Mountaineers core value and strategic priority of advocacy, we occasionally head to the other Washington to advocate for public lands on behalf of our community. This past week in D.C. proved to be a productive and inspiring few days with colleagues from the outdoor recreation and climbing community! Read on to get the highlights from this whirlwind week.  Read more…

This past week, two pieces of legislation that we’ve helped shape and advocated for – the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation (SOAR) Act and the Recreation Not Red Tape (RNR) Act - had a hearing in the House Committee on Natural Resources. Hearings like this are important steps for a bill to move through the legislative process to eventually become law. The goals of both bills include reducing friction in the permitting process without compromising environmental considerations or the experience of non-commercial public lands visitors. Read more…

Here is an excerpt from Dr. Robert Max Holmes' essay in The Big Thaw: Ancient Carbon, Modern Science and a Race to Save the World, an October 2019 release from our conservation imprint Braided River. (And save the date: Max Holmes and photographer Chris Linder will present at our Seattle Program Center in November.)
Read more…

Few know that hidden in the lower 48 states is a rainforest where mountain caribou live. For the past few years, Washington biologist, outdoorsman, and photographer David Moskowitz has been studying these animals on the cusp of extinction. Following is an excerpt from his new book, Caribou Rainforest, published by Mountaineers Books. Read more…

We have been talking about the public land heist – an effort to transition national public lands to other entities and effectively take the ‘public’ out of public lands – for a number of years now. While the heist has moved from direct attempts to sell off public lands to focusing on new approaches that devalue these landscapes, the increasing threat is still here: our national public lands are under attack. We updated you on some important pieces of the heist in 2018, and celebrated some of the work being done to stop it. Read on to learn about what the  Public Lands Heist looks like in 2019. Read more…

The hard truth is that public lands legislation is complicated, victories can be slow, and our public lands are chronically underfunded. The threats to these places are becoming increasingly urgent, and our ability to respond to issues – and thus create space for you to engage – is limited by staff capacity and funding. In order to provide more opportunities for outdoor recreationists to learn about and understand the issues facing our public lands and become an even stronger voice for threaten landscapes, we need to bring on a staff position focused on public lands advocacy and engagement. To make sure we not only keep our footing on this precarious ground, but also find ways to play offense and not just defense, we need your help.  Read more…

Earlier this summer we hosted a lively summer kick-off party at Mountaineering Club for 200 of our members and supporters. We’d now like to invite you back up to the rooftop for another party – this time in support of The Mountaineers critical conservation and advocacy work. Read more…

Resident orcas of the Salish Sea may be wild creatures, but satellite tags, drone images and individual health profiles are making them as familiar as family to researchers. The distinctively marked, largest members of the dolphin family that comprise the J, K, and L pods, also known as killer whales, are being studied inside and out. While scientists monitor the whales’ whereabouts, new babies, and what’s happening with food sources, they’re also analyzing the whales’ feces and blubber to better understand the health of individuals. Read more…

By the end of the day, I was finally able to look squarely into the camera and say, “poop” without laughing. Our film team let out a collective sigh of relief. We were officially finished with one of the most challenging storytelling tasks of the Backcountry Impact Series film project: human waste. Read more…

The breeze on my face contained the chill of an early spring day, sunny warmth trying to shaking off the last of winter. On this day, with the task at hand, the chill was welcome. I rested on a bleached log long stripped of bark, the waves filling my ears with swaying sound. A member of my Mountaineers group came into view along the water-line, his body bent as he dragged a line of buoys behind him. Smiling, I picked up my garbage sack and started looking for that piece of plastic I noticed earlier. Today was turning out to be a good day. Read more…

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing significant changes to its National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) regulations. NEPA is one of the U.S.’s foundational environmental laws that charges land management agencies to evaluate the environmental and possible social and economic impacts of a proposed action, as well as ensuring that the public has the opportunity to review and comment on proposals. NEPA is our voice to how our public lands are managed. Read more…

You’ve heard from The Mountaineers a lot over the years about the need to improve federal public lands permitting processes so more folks can get outside on public lands in an organized group setting. We’re excited to say that legislation that we helped to shape - the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation (SOAR) Act - has been introduced in both the House and Senate. We are stoked to see a bill that will help fix the current inefficient, unpredictable recreational permitting system, removing barriers that keep groups from getting outside. Read more…

Being a huge fan of stewardship and conservation, I’m super proud of the hard hat I earned as a stewardship volunteer with the Olympia Mountaineers. I first became interested in 2014 when Kathy Fox and Jim French approached me to help out on several local projects, and from there I was hooked. Read more…

A hush spread over the crowd of 500 well-dressed Mountaineers, all eyes on the stage in anticipation. From behind the curtain emerged Jaydalen Blossom, a 14-year old outdoor enthusiast and participant with Young Women Empowered (Y-WE), a youth-serving mentorship and empowerment organization we partner with as part of our Mountain Workshops program. Jaydalen joined us to speak about the connection to people and place she feels in being outside, and to offer a fresh perspective on why protecting these places and experiences is more important than ever. Read more…

Cross-country skiing in the Methow. Climbing at Exit 38. Hiking at Ebey’s Landing. There's nothing like the amazing landscapes of the Pacific Northwest, and thanks to your advocacy, they are more protected than ever! Read more…