When volunteers started the Washington chapter of The Nature Conservancy 60 years ago, they were driven to set aside some of the state’s rare and fragile habitats as a museum of living history. Since then, with support from thousands of people across the state, the Conservancy has protected and preserved many of our most precious places, including landmarks like the Point of Arches on the Washington coast and eagle habitat on the Skagit River. Today, we continue to steward more than a hundred thousand acres of land, notably at Moses Coulee, the forests in the Central Cascades in Kittitas County, Port Susan Bay on Puget Sound, and the salmon rivers of the Olympic Peninsula.

But saving isolated special places, while crucial, is not enough. We recognize what the Indigenous people of this region have always known—the well-being of people and nature cannot be separated. The natural and social systems that support healthy forests, rivers, and runs of salmon also support the health and well-being of people. Practices that lead to pollution and loss of habitat and species also damage people.

Guided by science and by experience, the Conservancy works with a diverse array of partners in support of policies, funding mechanisms, and on-the-ground projects that sustain healthy lands, waters and communities.

In this pivotal moment, the Conservancy acknowledges that, as part of the mainstream conservation movement, we benefit from a white-dominant culture and operate comfortably in an unjust, racist society. It’s time to focus on the inextricable connection between conservation and racial, social and economic justice, and commit to using our resources toward equitable and effective conservation. We must actively work to change systems that rationalize harm to the environment and communities as the unavoidable cost of a prosperous society. Those harmful impacts land most heavily on communities that have historically been excluded from decision-making.