Photo credit: Tj Holowaychuk
Pacific Northwest Essences has set up an ongoing quarterly donation program to carefully selected nonprofit organizations that work to protect our earth’s wildlife and habitats. We’ve chosen to focus our efforts on nonprofits that are active in the larger Pacific West region, and that have the know-how and organizational capacity to effect real changes.
This is how it works: every time you make a purchase on our web site using the discount code ForThePacificWest, you will get 10% off your order (excluding the shipping) and we will make an automatic donation of 10% of your order value to whichever nonprofit we are featuring that quarter. We change which nonprofit we are supporting every few quarters in order to spread our contributions among a range of deserving organizations.
Currently all proceeds from this promotional code will be going to Conservation Northwest, a Washington State–based nonprofit dedicated to protecting wildlands, connecting habitat, and restoring wildlife populations from the Washington Coast to the British Columbia Rockies. Conservation Northwest brings together diverse stakeholders including conservationists, farmers, indigenous and First Nations peoples, hikers and climbers, hunters and anglers, and others to find collaborative solutions for challenging issues including creating habitat corridors, conserving wilderness areas, restoring forests, and recovering endangered species. Through their on-the-ground work, educational outreach, and activism, they aim to preserve the natural legacy of the Pacific Northwest for generations to come. Our first donation to Conservation Northwest will be made in December 2022, reflecting all contributions from the fourth quarter of the year.
Previous contributions through our giveback program have supported organizations including:
The Northwest Environmental Defense Center, a nonprofit organization devoted to protecting the environment and natural resources of the Pacific Northwest. Founded by a group of law professors and students in 1969, NEDC acts as an environmental watchdog to hold regulators and companies accountable and fill advocacy gaps that warrant attention. The group engages with government agencies and tracks federal and state actions in the region to help enforce environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act. NEDC uses litigation and creative legal strategies to fulfill its mission, and is committed to expanding their work and partnerships with communities that have been disproportionately impacted by environmental pollution.
SeaLegacy, a Canada-based organization run by Paul Nicklen and Cristina Mittermeier dedicated to the protection and recovery of the world's oceans. SeaLegacy uses a project-driven, three-pronged approach to driving lasting and sustainable change: First, they lead photographers and filmmakers on expeditions to capture the beauty and the threats below the surface of our oceans. Next, they use this media to create visually stunning global campaigns that reach millions of people every week, and that are designed to trigger advocacy and global change. And finally, they invest in inspiring, community-centered projects around the world that are creating healthier, more abundant oceans one solution at a time.
There are a number of other pro-environment nonprofits that do meaningful work on conservation in the Pacific West. We would encourage you to support any of these organizations, and we plan to support each of them with our quarterly donation program in the near future:
- Puget Soundkeeper’s mission is to protect and preserve the waters of Puget Sound. The organization monitors Puget Sound water quality, helps set strong policies and regulations to protect the region’s waterways and the health of its citizens, partners with local and regional groups to advance collaborative solutions, and works to enforce environmental regulations, engage citizens and businesses in cleanup projects, and educate the public about local water pollution issues. A founding member of Waterkeeper Alliance, the largest and fastest-growing nonprofit focused solely on clean water, Soundkeeper actively patrols the waters of Puget Sound to monitor for pollution, and helps to enforce the Clean Water Act through legal action as well as through engagement with businesses, government agencies, and Puget Sound communities.
- Save Our Wild Salmon is committed to restoring abundant, self-sustaining, fishable populations of salmon and steelhead to the Columbia-Snake River Basin. Based in Seattle and Spokane, Washington, this coalition of northwestern and national conservation organizations, recreational and commercial fishing associations, clean energy advocates, businesses, and citizens has two primary goals: First, they are working to secure a durable, lawful, science-based federal plan to protect and restore the endangered populations of salmon and steelhead in the region, including the removal of several large dams that have contributed to their rapid demise. And second, they are lobbying for a modernized U.S.-Canada Columbia River Treaty that would prioritize ecological goals and outcomes equally with energy production and flood management, and would engage Columbia Basin Tribes and First Nations as full partners in its planning and implementation.
- Washington Wild is devoted to protecting and restoring wild lands and waters in Washington State through advocacy, education, and civic engagement. This member-based nonprofit is the only statewide group dedicated to protecting wild lands and waters, and works closely with both national and local grassroots advocacy groups to achieve their mission. The organization develops campaigns in support of federally designated Wilderness and federally designated Wild and Scenic Rivers, which are the strongest protections available for federal lands and waters, and monitors and advocates against ecological threats such as dam and mining proposals, military training, timber sales, and geothermal development. Washington Wild works collaboratively with Tribes, faith leaders, outdoor enthusiasts, hunters, anglers, local businesses, elected officials, and more, and has played a role in permanently protecting nearly three million acres of wilderness throughout the state since 1979.
- The Pilchuck Audubon Society uses education, advocacy, community activism, and community science to protect and enhance the natural environment in Snohomish County and Camano Island, Washington. A local chapter of the National Audubon Society, they work to conserve local ecosystems, with a particular focus on birds and other wildlife, for the benefit of the earth's biological diversity.
- Yellowstone Forever is the nonprofit organization affiliated with Yellowstone National Park. They support a variety of priority projects in the park, including sustainability efforts, targeted initiatives such as the Yellowstone Wolf Project, which reintroduced native wolves to Yellowstone, and the Youth Conservation Corps, a work-based education program for students aged 15 to 18. Yellowstone Forever’s focus is on protecting the park’s native wildlife and biodiversity, preserving the area’s natural resources, and offering opportunities for visitors to connect to wild places in order to inspire the next generation of park stewards.
- Inland Northwest Land Conservancy is committed to conserving, caring for, and connecting natural habitats throughout the Inland Northwest, and works to protect green space in the Inland region from development. Based in our own hometown of Spokane, WA, the Conservancy has helped to protect 125 miles of waterways and shoreline and 22,682 acres of land to date, and today an unbelievable 90 percent of the households in Spokane and Kootenai Counties are located within sight of land the Conservancy has helped to protect.
- The Ancient Forest Alliance, based in British Columbia, works to protect BC's endangered old-growth forests and to promote a sustainable, value-added, second-growth forest industry. Through education, lobbying, and a practical, economic solutions-based approach, the Alliance advocates for province-wide legislation to end the logging of endangered old-growth forests, and supports the centrality of First Nations in land use planning.
- Washington Nature is the Washington chapter of The Nature Conservancy, whose mission is to conserve the lands and waters we all depend on and to sustain a healthy relationship between people and nature. Washington Nature takes a science-based, solutions-oriented approach to conservation, with a focus on climate change, forests and fire management, restoring and protecting the Puget Sound region, and more. They work to protect Washington's irreplaceable natural systems and find innovative ways to transform forestry, fishing, agriculture, and land and water management so that both nature and communities can prosper.
- Wild Fish Conservancy Northwest is headquartered in Washington state, but works to preserve, protect, and restore wild fish populations and the ecosystems they depend on from California to Alaska. Through research, education, and advocacy, the group works to promote technically and socially responsible habitat, hatchery, aquaculture, and harvest management to sustain the region's wild fish heritage for generations to come.
- The Klamath Bird Observatory is devoted to bird conservation in the Pacific Northwest and throughout the ranges of the region's migratory birds. Their approach combines long-term monitoring of bird populations, in-depth theoretical research to advance our understanding of their distribution and movements, and applied ecology to address natural research management challenges.