Making an impact by volunteering

There are lots of ways to make your voice heard when speaking up for the environment. As a member of Environment Washington, your support allows our staff and advocates working in Olympia and Washington, D.C., to stand up for our environment. Sometimes, our members get involved in a hands-on way, by volunteering.

In Bellevue, Brian Murphy, an Environment Washington volunteer, took a renewable energy poster to the base of a hiking trail and took photos of hikers holding the sign. He delivered the photos to Rep. Dave Reichert’s office and set up a meeting with the representative for later that month.

We appreciate the work that these and hundreds of other volunteers are doing. To find our more about volunteering or other ways to help, go to our Web site and click on “How you can help.”

National forests worth a lot of green

America’s national forests, in addition to being a welcome respite from the city and a popular vacation destination, provide a lot of valuable revenue.

Our September report, “Worth More Wild: The Value of Roadless National Forests,” catalogues the many ways that roadless areas are worth more than the logs they could become. The report makes the case for protecting roadless areas—not only for their natural beauty and intangible benefits, but for the actual dollar value these places represent. Lodging and rentals, drinking water and wildlife watching are among the many revenue-generating activities that annually bring billions of dollars in revenue to states with roadless areas.

We’re pushing Washington’s congressional delegation to support a law in Congress that would permanently protect roadless areas set aside by the Environment Washington-backed Roadless Rule of 2001.

Olympia National Forest