Advocates For The West

Advocates For The West

Advocates for the West is one of the leading conservation groups working to protect and restore public lands, water, and wildlife in the American West.
We cherish the open spaces and freedom of the West, and want to ensure that our western heritage – its wildlife, wild places and wild rivers – are preserved for future generations.
Based in Boise, Idaho, our team of top-notch lawyers and scientists works with conservation groups and activists across the West to demand that federal and state agencies manage our public lands and wildlife properly – and to hold them accountable when they violate environmental laws or ignore science.
Wolves, bighorn sheep, salmon and steelhead, greater sage-grouse, pygmy rabbits, bull trout, grizzly bears, pronghorn antelope – these are just a few of the keystone species we fight to protect. And we work to maintain healthy landscapes – from the northern Rockies to the Sierras and Cascades, and the vast Sagebrush Sea in between them – that these and so many other species need to survive.
Among the pressing threats we address is domestic livestock grazing on the public lands, which degrades streams, erodes soils, and fragments wildlife habitat – yet is not economically viable and provides less than 2% of our nation’s beef.  We also oppose clearcutting of old growth forests; rampant off-road vehicle abuse; damming of our wild rivers; and irresponsible energy development and mining on public lands.
Global climate change also poses a serious threat to the American West, and to the birds, fish, and animals that live here.  With climate change, the West is getting hotter and drier – meaning more fires and more weed invasions, and less water for humans and wildlife.
Advocates for the West is keenly aware of these challenges, and is pushing our public land managers to change old ways – which are now outdated and harmful to the land – to deal with the future by adopting new policies that follow science.
We have a long track record of success – as illustrated in the Chronology Of Success found in the Newsletter section of this website – and we continue to bring larger and more cases.  The Cases section of this website presents more detailed discussion of our cases, which you can search according to type of case, location, or other criteria.