Columbia Highlands: Exploring Washington's Last Frontier

The beauty of the Columbia Highlands is subtle. It's measured by rays of sunlight filtering through a cathedral forest of ancient pines; a golden hillside teeming with deer; in the soft breezes that whistle through shiny snags. It's cherished for its vastness, its lack of human intervention, its rejuvenating properties, and its abundant wildlife.

Columbia Highlands is a portrait of this-little known corner of the American West. It reveals its function as an important wildlife bridge between the Rockies and the Cascades for animals--including wolves, bears, moose, and lynx--who must roam to survive. It reveals the surprising coalition of people--hunters, hikers, loggers, business owners, Native people, and more--united in their love of the land and working to protect and restore it. Theirs is a new kind of conservation plan, one that preserves the health of the ecosystem while sustaining a viable rural economy and lifestyle. The Columbia Highlands Initiative calls for a long-term plan for restoration, conservation, sustainable forestry, and for designating some of the first new wilderness areas in the state since 1984.

Award winning outdoor writer CRAIG ROMANO has been passionately writing about and promoting the Columbia Highlands since he first stepped foot in the Kettle Mountains. He has authored more than 20 hiking guidebooks. JAMES JOHNSTON is a professional conservationist and landscape photographer who specializes in the wildlands of the Pacific Northwest; his photos have been published in Eugene Weekly and Forest magazine, among others.