Western Watersheds Project
“To protect and restore western watersheds and wildlife.”
The origin
How they started
Western Watersheds Project exists to get livestock off public land, full stop. Former architect Jon Marvel started it in 1993 as the Idaho Watersheds Project after years of fighting cattle trespass near his own place, and it grew into a regional force with field offices across seven Western states. WWP challenges grazing permits in court using the Endangered Species Act and Clean Water Act, and fights for sage grouse and damaged streams on BLM and Forest Service ground.
Every year they sign one sentence and file it with the federal government: “TO PROTECT AND RESTORE WESTERN WATERSHEDS AND WILDLIFE THROUGH EDUCATION, PUBLIC POLICY INTIATIVES AND LEGAL ADVOCACY.”
Where the money went, FY2025
The work, and what it cost
Keeping wilderness wild
$951KIDENTIFY DAMAGED WATERSHEDS AND DOCUMENT ABUSIVE LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES. REPORT THE FOLLOWING: - LIVESTOCK NUMBERS ON GRAZING ALLOTMENTS - TURNOUT TIMES - ABUSIVE GRAZING - DEGREDATION OF STREAMS AND STREAM BANKS - DE...
Read it as they filed it
MONITORING - IDENTIFY DAMAGED WATERSHEDS AND DOCUMENT ABUSIVE LAND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES. REPORT THE FOLLOWING: - LIVESTOCK NUMBERS ON GRAZING ALLOTMENTS - TURNOUT TIMES - ABUSIVE GRAZING - DEGREDATION OF STREAMS AND STREAM BANKS - DESTRUCTION OF RIPARIAN AND UPLAND HABITAT - DEGREDATION OF CULTURAL, HISTORIC, ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND SCENIS RESOURCES - ILLEGAL DIVERSIONS OF WATER - NEGATIVE IMPACTS TO WILDERNESS VALUES, ROADLESS AREAS, WILDERNESS STUDY AREAS AND DESIGNATED WILDERNESS.
IRS Form 990 Part III, fiscal year 2025, signed under penalty of perjury.
Boots on the ground
$408KWESTERN WATERHEDS PROJECT SUCCESSFULLY BRINGS THE ORGANIZATION’S CONSERVATION CAMPAIGN TO TEH ATTENTION OF NATIONAL PRESS AND POLICYMAKERS.
Read it as they filed it
RESTORATION AND EDUCATION - WESTERN WATERHEDS PROJECT SUCCESSFULLY BRINGS THE ORGANIZATION'S CONSERVATION CAMPAIGN TO TEH ATTENTION OF NATIONAL PRESS AND POLICYMAKERS. IN THE LAST FIVE YEARS, MORE THAN 450 NEWS STORIES HAVE APPEARED ABOUT THE WORK OF WWP.
IRS Form 990 Part III, fiscal year 2025, signed under penalty of perjury.
Holding the line in court
$340KPROTECT IMPERILED WILDLIFE, PUBLIC LANDS, AND WESTERN WATERSHEDS THROUGH VIGOROUS LITIGATION UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT, CLEAN WATER ACT, FEDERAL LAND POLICY MANAGEMENT ACT, AND OTHER STATUTES THAT PROTECT THE ENVI...
Read it as they filed it
LITIGATION - PROTECT IMPERILED WILDLIFE, PUBLIC LANDS, AND WESTERN WATERSHEDS THROUGH VIGOROUS LITIGATION UNDER THE ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT, CLEAN WATER ACT, FEDERAL LAND POLICY MANAGEMENT ACT, AND OTHER STATUTES THAT PROTECT THE ENVIRONMENT. THE ORGANIZATION HOLDS OVER 4,000 ACREAS OF SCHOOL ENDOWMENT LAND LEASEHOLDS OBTAINED THROUGH COMPETITIVE BIDDING THAT ARE BEING MANAGED FOR WILDLIFE HABITAT AND CONSERVATION PURPOSES.
IRS Form 990 Part III, fiscal year 2025, signed under penalty of perjury.
Follow the dollar
85 cents of every dollar goes to the work
That ratio is a good sign, not a scorecard. Plenty of great groups run leaner and lumpier. What matters is the extremes, and Western Watersheds Project is nowhere near one.
$1,698,723 programs, $243,123 management, $59,016 fundraising. Form 990, FY2025.
The people
Who does the work
Succeeds Allison Jones 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 Allison Jones, the return itself is signed by Erik Molvar. Orgs that claim their page can update it same-day. Work at WWP? Claim this page.
The record
The court record
And 10 more in our case database: a selection we track, not their full docket.
14 years of filings
Total revenue by fiscal year, as filed. Point at the line for any year.
| Year | Revenue |
|---|---|
| 2011 | $1,674,971 |
| 2012 | $449,879 |
| 2013 | $619,686 |
| 2014 | $693,185 |
| 2015 | $753,782 |
| 2016 | $718,469 |
| 2017 | $896,311 |
| 2018 | $931,878 |
| 2019 | $1,008,417 |
| 2020 | $1,338,196 |
| 2021 | $1,316,274 |
| 2022 | $1,526,916 |
| 2023 | $1,705,061 |
| 2025 | $2,073,382 |
From $1.7M in 2011 to $2.1M in FY25, across 14 public filings. The 2025 peak of $2.1M reads like one-time gifts, so trust the line, not the peak.
Fights alongside Center for Biological Diversity (9 shared cases), WildEarth Guardians (5 shared cases), Sierra Club (3 shared cases), Earthjustice (2 shared cases) and National Parks Conservation Association (2 shared cases) and 17 more. Same case, same side, on the federal docket.
Their ground
The places they defend
Co-plaintiff in the federal appeal challenging BLM’s plan to cut the Adobe Town herd management area roughly in half as part of the largest wild horse removal ever attempted in the Wyoming checkerboard.
Who’s defending it On the groundBruneau-Jarbidge RiversHas litigated BLM grazing mismanagement across 1.4 million acres of the Jarbidge and Bruneau river canyonlands since the early 2000s, winning injunctions against permit overruns and Ninth Circuit-affirmed orders requiring allotment assessments and stream protections.
Who’s defending it On the groundMcDermitt CalderaCo-plaintiff in the Thacker Pass litigation that won a 2023 ruling that BLM violated FLPMA in approving the mine’s waste dump, and petitioner for ESA listing of the Kings River pyrg springsnail.
Who’s defending it On the groundSonoran Desert National MonumentSued BLM over monument grazing in 2008, 2013, and 2021, winning the August 2023 NEPA ruling that forced the December 2024 plan restricting grazing to short seasons in above-average precipitation years.
Who’s defending it On the groundCraters of the Moon National MonumentIts 2008 lawsuit produced the U.S. District Court of Idaho order requiring BLM to analyze no-grazing and reduced-grazing alternatives for the monument’s BLM lands, and it later litigated sage-grouse protections covering the Craters plan.
Who’s defending it In the fightAmerican PrairieFiled a protest against BLM’s revocation of the bison grazing permits
Who’s defending itSee every threatened place on one map, and who stands for each.
Across the 9 states where they work, the congressional delegations average 49 of 100 on public lands. See the full scorecard
Ways in
How to help
85 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 MapStand with Western Watersheds Project
33 years on the ground, 6 live lawsuits, 85 cents of every dollar on the line. That is who is holding it. There is room for one more.