Checkerboard Forest

The Great Western Checkerboards Project is an effort to reconnect a divided checkerboard of land ownership that dates back to the westward expansion of railroads. In Washington State, the acquisition fills in critical gaps in state and federal wilderness areas for elk, wolves, wolverines and spotted owls at the headwaters of the Yakima River. Though the Forest Service and other land mangers have slowly worked to defragment this landscape with piecemeal land swaps over the years, $134 million in interim financing allows The Nature Conservancy to move quickly and make an impact at the landscape level.