This year Mountains to Sound Greenway Trust presented an amazing opportunity to collaborate with them in documenting the culmination of 20 years worth of work restoring salmon habitat in an urban watershed. Such an ambitious project by MTSGT and partners including Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission, the Snoqualmie Tribe and others! Issaquah Creek runs through Lake Sammamish State Park, where salmon return from the ocean running a gauntlet only find an unwelcome habitat to spawn in—until now. What does it take to bring back a salmon population in a densely populated suburban area with one of the country’s most important interstates running through it? It’s a story that I’m deeply proud to have worked on. Thank you to all at the Greenway Trust!
A second video that I created for the Conservation Northwest Auction was one in honor of Mitch Friedman, Founder and Executive Director, who was stepping down after a remarkable 38 years. That’s quite a run! Mitch leaves behind an astounding legacy of accomplishments from his amazing career. The video was very well received, not least by Mitch himself who didn’t know about it until it played immediately following the announcement of a special fund in his honor. It was a great honor to collaborate with staff and CNW board members past and present on this project.
Congratulations Mitch, and best of luck to you and Jackie on your next adventures! Thanks for everything you’ve done for Washington wildlife.
At the 2026 Conservation Northwest Auction, our new video was revealed. With it came the news for an exciting conservation effort in the works: working with partners like WSDOT, WDFW, local land trusts and the Rochester, WA, community to build an over-crossing on I-5 which would reconnect wildlife corridors between the Cascades and Olympic mountains! In addition was a heartwarming story of good will as in the process of securing land on either side of the highway for wildlife access, the descendants of a homestead family returned their family land to the original inhabitants, the Chehalis Tribe, through a Conservation Northwest brokered arrangement. Watch this video to see how the story unfolded, and what needs to happen next.
Artist’s rendition of a wildlife over-crossing on I-5 where the proposed structure would be built
2026 is off to a soaring start, and time to tease some good news that I can’t share quite yet. But know that it’s the time of year to produce this year’s auction video for Conservation Northwest, and they are doing amazing work for wildlife in Washington State. Thank you, CNW, for having me back for the twelfth consecutive year, and thank you Eric Berman for this amazing flight to get landscape footage on a sunny January day!
The Forest Resilience Division plays such an important role in caring for Washington’s state-owned forests, small privately-owned forests, and cities, towns and communities across the state. I learned so much about all this varied work—ever a bonus in my position—and just had a blast collaborating with my colleagues.
Here are a few of my favorite projects from my tenure there:
Thanks to all at WA DNR for allowing me to join you in your mission for a short while, especially Division Manager Jen Watkins! I enjoyed our adventures together.
A very special project that Darrin Gunkel and I spent over a year working on was a celebration video for the 40th anniversary of Cowiche Canyon Conservancy. A non-profit land trust based in Yakima, WA, the conservancy is the result of handful of residents protecting an amazing canyon just west of the city, connecting people with the shrubsteppe ecology through a system of trails and public outreach. The conservancy is lead by the fabulous Celisa Hopkins and the fantastic staff who put blood, sweat and tears into this community jewel, which is also important habitat connecting shrubsteppe with the dry side forests and higher elevation Cascade Mountains that include Mount Rainier. Celisa asked for a poetic take on telling this story and we were happy to oblige. Dave Gross also did an exceptional job by doing his magic in the audio post-production process.
The video had its debut at the conservancy’s Spring auction event. Celisa reported not only many heartfelt comments from people that it touched, but also an uptick in the charitable contributions they received.
Thank you Celisa for giving us the opportunity to work with you on this project!
One of the more inspiring and creative projects in recent times was creating a video about ranching using new virtual fencing technology. That’s right, it’s the same concept as an electric fence for keeping your dog in your yard without a physical fence, but at an industrial and landscape scale. This is a win for everyone: replacing deadly barbed-wire fencing to help wildlife, and reducing cost and labor for rural ranchers who are forward thinking in ways that they steward the land.
I’m grateful to the ranchers and farmers of Douglas County, WA, who always impress me and teach me something new that I’ve never considered. One of the many joys of doing the work I do, meeting people and always learning.
It was such a pleasure to be a guest on the podcast In Tune To Nature, hosted by Carrie Freeman, along with Frances Figart. In Tune to Nature is an eco & animal protection weekly radio show broadcast from Atlanta on Radio Free Georgia Wednesdays from 6:30-7pm EST on wrfg.org and 89.3FM. Carrie led a discussion with Frances and I about using creative ways to support wildlife safe road passages. You can listen to our episode here.
Some positive feedback from The Crossing event in Asheville, NC, this autumn, as shared in the Safe Passages I-40 newsletter. Both Cascade Crossroads and Critter Crossings in the Cascades were publicly screened.
“My favorite aspect of the film was how encouraging it was! The collaboration between multiple stakeholders in finding safe paths for the animals to cross felt so good. Our country has been so divided on many issues, particularly in recent years. Learning about the success of this project and how the governmental and state agencies continued to reach out to the film director for more of his work after the original film was proof that they, too, were inspired!” — Robin D.
