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Grassroots

Cascadia Wildlands

“To defend and restore Cascadia’s wild ecosystems.”

Home groundEugene, OR
Founded1997
KindGrassroots 501(c)(3)
Led byJosh Laughlin

Every way to help ↓

The origin

How they started

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

The work, and what it cost

Holding the line in court

$1.2M

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.

Read it as they filed it
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

87 cents of every dollar goes to the work

87¢
87¢ the work5¢ keeping the lights on8¢ finding the next member

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

Who does the work

14paid staff
75volunteers last year
6board members
29years on the ground
Josh LaughlinExecutive DirectorSigned the 2025 federal filing as Executive Director

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 76

The record

The court record

And 5 more in our case database: a selection we track, not their full docket.

15 years of filings

Total revenue by fiscal year, as filed. Point at the line for any year.

$1M$1.6M FY2520112025
Total revenue by fiscal year
YearRevenue
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

The places they defend

See every threatened place on one map, and who stands for each.

Where and what
Who writes the rules where they work

The Oregon congressional delegation averages 87 of 100 on public lands. See the full scorecard

More groups in Oregon

Ways in

How to help

Stand with Cascadia Wildlands

29 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.

Sources and methodFinancials, headcounts, and program text: IRS Form 990, FY2025 and 14 prior filings via ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer, EIN 93-1293019. Leadership and compensation: Form 990 Part VII and the return’s signature block, FY2025 filing. Grantees: Schedule I, same filing. Court record: CourtListener dockets in the MTJP litigation database (4 linked cases: 3 active, 1 lost). Allies: co-litigation edges derived from the same dockets, same case and same side. Funders: the funders’ own returns (Schedule I and 990-PF Part XV) via ProPublica, names and years only. Place links: MTJP editorial curation with per-link sources. Org-reported figures are always labeled. Data verified as of 2026-09-23. Nothing on this page is pay-to-play.