ED Report July 2022

• July 29, 2022
• CalWild

By Chris Morrill, Executive Director

We often put CalWild’s campaigns and projects at the center of most of our communication. We highlight the wild places we are working to protect. Those places are what connect most of us to our passion for conservation. That love of place is what makes us willing to push through tough times and fight for years to achieve big conservation victories.

While the places themselves are central, we don’t talk enough about the people that help sustain us and this movement. There is not one campaign or project that CalWild works on alone. Whether it is wildfires, land management processes, or any of our protection campaigns, we rely heavily on the talent of individuals and organizations outside of CalWild that are doing great on-the-ground work in Sacramento or in Washington D.C.

This year, CalWild released our first strategic plan in over a decade. The good news was that we felt like continuing our work to protect and restore California’s wild places was still essential. However, we recognized just how much talent was in the conservation community. We are setting on a new course to help uplift, empower and support many of our partners with the skills and experience that CalWild has obtained through more than 45 years of work on California’s public lands.

There is no way we’ll ever be able to highlight every partner or individual that makes conservation wins possible. However, to elevate voices behind the scenes doing good work, CalWild will begin occasional partner spotlights in our newsletter. This will be a specific call out of partners we’re working with on a campaign or other effort.

Additionally, we are working to continue to highlight these partners in our regular updates on campaigns. Some may be names familiar to you. Others may be very small and local. Regardless, I encourage you to investigate these groups and support them if you’re able. CalWild is always striving to grow and be more impactful. No matter how effective we are or how big we get, our wins will always rely on the great work of our partners. This is a collective movement, and it is only through the strength of our entire community that we will achieve great and lasting conservation victories.

Please let me know your thoughts, comments, and questions by emailing me at cmorrill@calwild.org.