Cascadia Wildlands and Big Wildlife Become One
July 25, 2013
Contacts:
Bob Ferris, Executive Director, Cascadia Wildlands, bob@cascwild.org
Spencer Lennard, Big Wildlife Advocate, Cascadia Wildlands, spencer@cascwild.org
EUGENE — On July 1, 2013 Big Wildlife formally became part of Cascadia Wildlands—a regional conservation non-profit operating from northern California to south-central Alaska and headquartered in Eugene. The merger will mean an expansion of Cascadia Wildlands’ conservation and restoration work on predators like cougars and black bears.
“We have worked in partnership with Big Wildlife for years on a number of issues, now the relationship just got closer,” said Bob Ferris executive director of Cascadia Wildlands. “We can talk about gains in organizational efficiency and a myriad of synergies, but the bottom line is that this move creates more and stronger predator advocacy in more places and for more species in Cascadia than we had before.”
Cascadia Wildlands began in 1998 when a small group of passionate students and community members decided to take action against rampant clearcutting in Oregon’s Cascades and Coast Range. Since then Cascadia Wildlands has grown into a regional conservation leader. Though grassroots organizing, policy work and litigation, they have protected millions of acres of wildlands and prevented endangered wildlife from disappearing.
Big Wildlife was founded as a project under Earth Islands’ administrative umbrella in 2006. Big Wildlife was created to protect and advocate for keystone wildlife and top carnivores such as big cats, bears, coyotes, and wolves in North America, resulting in the prevention of cruel methods of hunting, trapping and lethal wildlife management.
“I am excited to join the Cascadia Wildlands staff as their Big Wildlife Advocate,” said Big Wildlife’s executive director and founder Spencer Lennard. “Cascadia’s focused and efficient approach—working in those places that need the most help—really appeals to me as does their science-based advocacy.”
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