Habitat for wildlife passage between Olympics and Cascades secured
Published 1:30 am Monday, March 30, 2026
Conservation Northwest is celebrating a major milestone on its way to coordinating the creation of a wildlife corridor between the Cascade Mountain range and the Olympic Peninsula.
The conservation group announced Friday it has completed a capital fundraising campaign to buy local land or easements, protecting them from future development and creating a path for wildlife to travel between two major habitat areas in the state. The announcement is the latest update in a campaign to make it easier for wildlife on the peninsula to cross Interstate 5 and pass through increasing development along the interstate corridor.
According to a news release from the conservation group, it has acquired the final foundation necessary that will allow the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation to purchase a plot of its ancestral homeland along Interstate 5 north of Rochester. This brings an end to what the group called a “years-long effort.”
“The Chehalis Tribe is excited to partner with Conservation Northwest to secure land in southern Thurston County as part of a larger wildlife migration corridor project,” Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation Chairman Dustin Klatush said in the news release. “Interstate 5 is a vital conduit for people and commerce, but it also acts as a barrier to the natural migration patterns of the many animals that call this region home.”
The campaign centered on purchasing plots of lands or securing development easements in parts of South Thurston County along Interstate 5. The end goal is to construct a wildlife overpass over the multilane freeway that will allow wildlife to cross unhindered.
The final domino to fall in the campaign was the closing of a purchase of the family-owned, 93-acre Vine Maple Farm. The farm was owned by six generations of the Erikson family, which has deep ties to the Lewis County area, including a connection to the historic Claquato Church. The family settled on the property in 1891.
“This success belongs to the Erickson family and to the many landowners, partners and donors who helped hold this corridor together,” Conservation Northwest Executive Director Mitch Friedman said. “Again and again, we found ourselves acting just in time before a property was subdivided, auctioned, or developed.”
A local descendant of the Erikson family, Marla Erikson LeFevre also weighed in on the final closing of the purchase.
“Just knowing that this land is going from our family back to where it belongs with the Chehalis Tribes makes us very happy,” LeFevre said. “It feels like a full circle moment.”
According to the recent news release, the campaign also helped “secure or stabilize” multiple other properties in the area near the proposed site of a wildlife overpass. Sites include two wooded properties on either side of the interstate that could accommodate the overpass ramps and a nearby 150-acre plot owned by the Veterans Ecological Trade Collective that hosts a local herd of elk. Donors contributed approximately $2 million toward the campaign.
The Washington state Legislature also recently approved $8 million for an easement of a nearby Port Blakely treefarm that will prevent future development.
Conservation Northwest has also worked with multiple state departments on the wildlife corridor campaign including the Washington state Department of Transportation and the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife. The progress of a wildlife corridor, the nonprofit said, will ultimately be decided by the state agencies and other partners involved.
“This campaign achieved many things. Foremost is that when Washington chooses to reconnect this landscape, the habitat foundation is now in place,” Friedman said.
