Dear friends of wilderness,

The Board of the National Wilderness Stewardship Alliance has been forced to make difficult decisions related to our organization’s operations. Due to several compounding financial challenges, NWSA must make changes to our business operations. This means significantly reducing our operational costs so the organization can remain financially viable. Regretfully, we have made the very difficult decision to reduce our personnel costs and will release our Executive Director, Joelle Marier, at the end of March. Federal budget cuts to public lands have significantly reduced NWSA's funding, and the organization can no longer maintain any full or part-time staff while remaining fiscally responsible. The board will evaluate creative ways and partnerships to maintain grant programs, networking, training, and other services for our Alliance members.

In three years with NWSA, Joelle helped professionalize and grow our operations and programs in ways that will benefit members for years to come. She expanded our resource offerings by hosting regular webinars, building out the stewardship materials on our website and in our newsletter, and by creating spaces for Alliance members to connect. She represented the wilderness stewardship community on Capitol Hill during Hike the Hill and Wilderness Week, at regional alliance member gatherings, in federal agency planning sessions, and at other forums such as the World Wilderness Conference and National Wilderness Skills Institute. Most notably, she oversaw the Wilderness Stewardship Performance Partnership Funding (WSP Funding) and National Forest System Trail Stewardship Partnership Funding (Trail Partner Funding) grant programs, delivering over one million federal dollars to wilderness and trail stewardship organizations for on-the-ground stewardship. Behind the scenes, she improved NWSA’s technology and internal systems, partnered with the Board to improve governance and set strategic direction, and worked to diversify NWSA’s revenue streams. We are deeply grateful to Joelle for her service.

We want to be candid with you about the challenges that lie ahead. Delays and uncertaintyin federal funding, combined with increased competition for foundation and private donor support, have left NWSA's financial picture unclear. We do not yet know whether we will be able to continue administering the WSP Funding and Trail Partner Funding grant programs, but we will work with the Forest Service to find a path forward to ensure those funds continue to flow to partners. We will not be hosting the National Wilderness Workshop in 2026, as we cannot be confident we would generate sufficient revenue to cover the costs of hosting the event. We will seek partners to continue our networking events and to host in-person gatherings. Without full-time staff, our capacity to send newsletters and other communications will also be limited, so you may hear from us less frequently. That said, NWSA is not standing still. We are exploring the possibility of convening a national stewardship summit with leaders of other national wilderness and conservation organizations to confront the threats facing the wilderness preservation system at thiscritical time. We intend to maintain our 501(c)(3) status and to keep fighting for the stewardship of wild places that need partners now more than ever. We don't yet know exactly what our path forward looks like, but we will continue to update you as things develop.

Thank you for standing with us and for all that you do to protect and steward wild lands.

For things wild,

Jeff Randa

NWSA Board Chair