Regional Lands
The Pacific Northwest has a wide variety of ecosystems from temperate rainforests to arid deserts home to a multitude of diversity. This varied landscape is a result of many factors, which includes the magnificent Cascade Range that bisects Washington and Oregon and helps create the natural beauty that is such a defining part of life in the Pacific Northwest. The Gifford Pinchot Task Force works to preserve an important piece of this biodiversity by advocating for the Central Cascades with a distinct focus on the area in and around the Gifford Pinchot National Forest.
Yet the Gifford Pinchot National Forest is not an island. Its ecosystems and health are connected to and often dependent on the state, tribal, private, and other federal lands that surround it.
Unfortunately much of this land has been more heavily damaged by intensive logging, development or other uses than the GPNF. The GPNF serves as the core for our reserve of ancient forests, clean water, and biodiversity in southwest Washington, and it will continue to be central to regional restoration work. For comprehensive restoration to be successful, however, the surrounding lands should play an important role as connectivity corridors for migrating wildlife and plant species and as refuges for species from fish to rare plants. Looking beyond the borders of the GPNF, the need to establish good policies and projects on the surrounding lands is clear. To accomplish this task the Task Force engages on projects to maintain habitat connectivity for mammal movement and to protect habitat adjacent to and surrounding the GPNF from destructive development or other high-impact uses.
