From rolling grasslands to mountain peaks, coastal ecosystems to marine seascapes, temperate rainforests to intermountain dry conifer forests, there is an undeniable magnificence about the greater Cascadia/Pacific West transboundary landscape. Encompassing the province of British Columbia, the Yukon Territory, and the states of Washington, Oregon, and Northern California, this region boasts critical biodiversity, immense implications for the future of climate resilience, and a wide array of human communities ready to protect and restore the species and ecosystems in this shared geography.
The boundary of this nest is drawn primarily to encompass a distinct ecological and cultural identity. It spans two major subrealms of the Northern American Realm: the Pacific Coast, including the Cascade Mountains, Klamath-Siskiyou, and British Columbia coastal conifer forests; and the American West, including the Columbia Plateau, Okanogan dry forests, and the Fraser Plateau. This region has been stewarded for millennia by the hundreds of Tribes and First Nations that have ancestral and modern ties to these lands and waters. Though distinct in origin, cultural practices, and ecological knowledge, many of these Nations share a regional economy and identity supported by the harvesting, caring for, and trade of wild salmon.
Climate change is having profound effects on the human and natural communities of the Pacific West, driving a suite of climate-induced disturbances that are expected to accelerate in the coming decades. Droughts, catastrophic flooding, extreme temperatures, and devastating wildfires are already severely impacting communities and ecosystems across all parts of the landscape. Coastal and marine warming is negatively affecting critical keystone species, including salmon, kelp, and orcas, while rapidly increasing urban and suburban development disrupts vital migration corridors for wide-ranging species like caribou, grizzly bears, and wolves. Furthermore, the continued targeting of old-growth forests by administrations on both sides of the federal border threatens some of the last remaining swaths of these highly biodiverse habitats, which serve as irreplaceable global carbon sinks.
Through extensive scoping and informal interviews with practitioners, researchers, and funders across the region, the Salazar Center recognized a stark contrast between perception and reality in Cascadia. Though there is a persistent preconceived notion that the historical wealth of the Pacific Coast translates into ample funding for conservation, the story on the ground reveals a severe capital retraction and geographic inequities. This is particularly true in the interior grassland and dry forest ecosystems ranging from the Columbia Plateau into the Okanagan Valley and up through Central B.C., as well as along the underserved Oregon Coast. Furthermore, while Indigenous nations hold the deeply rooted knowledge required to lead transformative landscape-scale stewardship, many Tribes and First Nations—especially smaller communities—face severe resource constraints and have not received the capacity support or attention necessary to fully implement these vital activities.