“To defend and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems.”
The origin
Cascadia Wildlands grew out of the 1990s forest defense movement in western Oregon and incorporated in 1997, first as the Cascadia Forest Monitoring Project. It works to defend and restore Pacific Northwest forests and wildlife, often through litigation against federal timber sales and trapping rules. The Eugene group ran an Alaska field office in Cordova until 2017, fighting threats to the Tongass, the Chugach, and the Copper River watershed.
Every year they sign one sentence and file it with the federal government: “CASCADIA WILDLANDS DEFENDS AND RESTORES CACASIA'S WILD ECOSYSTEMS IN THE FORESTS,IN THE COURTS, AND IN THE STREETS. WE ENVISION VAST OLD-GROWTH FORESTS, RIVERS FULL OF WILD SALMON, WOLVES HOWLING IN THE BACKCOUNTRY, A STABLE CLIMATE, AND VIBRANT COMMUNITIES SUSTAINED BY THE UNIQUE LANDSCAPES OF THE CASCADIA BIOREGION.”
Where the money went, FY2025
1)HALTING MASSIVE MATURE AND OLD-GROWTH TIMBER SALES ON PUBLIC LAND IN WESTERN OREGON PROPOSED BY THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING AND LITIGATION CAMPAIGNS.
Including $109,190 granted onward, most of it $60,000 to Beyond Toxics.
1)HALTING MASSIVE MATURE AND OLD-GROWTH TIMBER SALES ON PUBLIC LAND IN WESTERN OREGON PROPOSED BY THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING AND LITIGATION CAMPAIGNS. 1)HALTING MASSIVE MATURE AND OLD-GROWTH TIMBER SALES ON PUBLIC LAND IN WESTERN OREGON PROPOSED BY THE BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT THROUGH GRASSROOTS ORGANIZING AND LITIGATION CAMPAIGNS. 2)ADVANCING AN AMENDMENT TO THE NORTHWEST FOREST PLAN THAT EMBRACES TRIBAL INCLUSION IN FOREST PLANNING AND STRENGTHENS SAFEGUARDS FOR MATURE AND OLD-GROWTH FORESTS. 3)SUCCESSFULLY URGING THE OREGON STATE LAND BOARD TO APPROVE A FOREST MANAGEMENT PLAN FOR THE RECENTLY CREATED ELLIOTT STATE RESEARCH FOREST THAT PRIORITIZES CARBON STORAGE, SALMON AND WILDLIFE RECOVERY, AND TRIBAL INCLUSION. 4)LAUNCHING A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE EUGENE WATER AND ELECTRIC BOARD FOR ONGOING VIOLATIONS OF THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT FOR FAILURE TO PROVIDE EFFECTIVE FISH PASSAGE FOR BULL TROUT AND CHINOOK SALMON AT TRAIL BRIDGE DAM ON THE MCKENZIE RIVER. 5)AS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE PACIFIC WOLF COALITION, SUCCESSFULLY ADVOCATING FOR GRAY WOLF RECOVERY, WHICH SAW A 15% POPULATION INCREASE OVER THE PAST YEAR IN OREGON. 6)LAUNCHING A LAWSUIT AGAINST THE US FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE FOR FAILURE TO LIST THE NORTH OREGON COAST POPULATION OF THE RED TREE VOLE AS A PROTECTED SPECIES UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT. 7)AS A FOUNDING MEMBER OF THE OREGON WILDLIFE COALITION, ACHIEVING THE PASSAGE OF THE BEAVER AND WATER QUALITY PROTECTION BILL, WHICH PROHIBITS TRAPPING AND HUNTING IN IMPAIRED WATER BODIES ON PUBLIC LANDS IN OREGON. 8)ADVANCING STRATEGIES TO AID THE JUST TRANSITION OFF FOSSIL FUELS IN BUILDINGS IN EUGENE THROUGH OUR LEADERSHIP ROLE IN THE FOSSIL FREE EUGENE COALITION.
IRS Form 990 Part III, fiscal year 2025, signed under penalty of perjury.
Follow the dollar
That ratio is a good sign, not a scorecard. Plenty of great groups run leaner and lumpier. What matters is the extremes, and Cascadia Wildlands is nowhere near one.
Backed on the record by Wilburforce Foundation, latest filing FY24.
$1,203,669 programs, $68,228 management, $110,160 fundraising. Form 990, FY2025.
The people
Succeeds Daniel Kruse in the officer table.
Honesty note: leadership comes from each year’s federal filing, so it can run a year behind. This one caught a changing of the guard in the act: the FY2025 officer table lists Daniel Kruse, the return itself is signed by Josh Laughlin. Orgs that claim their page can update it same-day. Work at CW? Claim this page.
Those 75 volunteers are people who decided this ground was theirs to defend. If CW is fighting for your place too, the matchmaker will find your way in.
Make it 76The record
And 5 more in our case database: a selection we track, not their full docket.
Total revenue by fiscal year, as filed. Point at the line for any year.
| Year | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2011 | $273,704 |
| 2012 | $384,121 |
| 2013 | $334,101 |
| 2014 | $372,134 |
| 2015 | $309,920 |
| 2016 | $373,882 |
| 2017 | $405,414 |
| 2018 | $482,384 |
| 2019 | $606,743 |
| 2020 | $354,245 |
| 2021 | $1,080,112 |
| 2022 | $1,425,478 |
| 2023 | $1,065,481 |
| 2024 | $1,007,029 |
| 2025 | $1,617,698 |
From $274K in 2011 to $1.6M in FY25, with no missed filing in 15 years. The 2025 peak of $1.6M reads like one-time gifts, so trust the line, not the peak.
Fights alongside Oregon Wild (6 shared cases), Center for Biological Diversity (3 shared cases), Conservation Northwest (2 shared cases), Klamath Forest Alliance (2 shared cases) and Alaska Wilderness League (1 shared case) and 6 more. Same case, same side, on the federal docket.
Their ground
Plaintiff in the January 2026 suit against the Roseburg BLM plan to log nearly 7,000 acres near Camas Valley
Who’s defending it Leading the fightWestern Oregon O&C LandsSerial litigant against western Oregon BLM logging, from the 2016 management plan challenge to the current round of timber sale suits
Who’s defending it On the groundLast Chance Timber SaleCo-plaintiff in the federal challenge to the 8,420-acre old-growth sale east of Sunny Valley
Who’s defending it On the groundWestern Oregon State ForestsPlaintiff in the March 2023 coho settlement that forced the Oregon Department of Forestry to widen stream buffers and inventory its road network across the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests.
Who’s defending it On the groundElliott State Research ForestInitiated the 2012 murrelet lawsuit that forced Oregon to cancel 28 Elliott timber sales and cut harvest by more than half, then won the 2024 Ninth Circuit ruling blocking Scott Timber from clearcutting old growth on the Benson Ridge parcel.
Who’s defending itSee every threatened place on one map, and who stands for each.
The Oregon congressional delegation averages 87 of 100 on public lands. See the full scorecard
Ways in
87 cents of your dollar goes straight to the work above.
Give on their site ↗Show upVolunteer with themFind their volunteer door on their own site.
Find it on their site ↗SpeakComment and callOpen comment windows and call scripts for fights like these, ready to send.
Public Lands Action NetworkFollowWatch the mapEvery threatened place in the country, tracked, with who stands for each.
Threatened Lands Map29 years on the ground, 75 volunteers, 3 live lawsuits, 87 cents of every dollar on the line. That is who is holding it. There is room for one more.