Sustainable Northwest is a conservation and environmentalist advocacy nonprofit based in Portland, Oregon. Sustainable Northwest supports regenerative ranching, sustainable wood markets, water conservation, forest conservation, and weather-dependent energy. ¹

Sustainable Northwest receives funding from government sources, primarily the U.S. Department of Agriculture for its conservation and sustainability programs. ²

Activities

Conservation

In 1996, Sustainable Northwest founded Wallowa Resources, a 1.8-million-acre forest restoration and stewardship program. ³

In 1998, Sustainable Northwest founded the Lakeview Stewardship Group to conserve 500,000 acres of the Fremont-Winema National Forest in Lake County, California. ³

In 2002, Sustainable Northwest established the Lake County Resources Initiative, an independent charitable nonprofit that invested in 22 weather-dependent energy projects in Lake County by 2020. ³

Starting in 2006, Sustainable Northwest began working with the Yurok, Karuk, and Klamath Tribes on the Klamath River dam removal project, which led to the removal of four dams by 2024. In 2016, Sustainable Northwest was a signatory of the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement, a part of the largest dam removal process to that date. ³

From 2009 to 2014, Sustainable Northwest ran the Dry Forest Zone, a forest management initiative that spanned 15 counties in eastern Oregon and northern California. ³

In 2014, Sustainable Northwest established the Washington Forest Collaborative Network, a coalition of eight organizations to support forest restoration: the Chumstick Wildfire Stewardship Coalition, Darrington Collaborative, the North Central Washington Forest Health Collaborative, the Northeast Washington Forestry Coalition, the Olympic Forest Collaborative, Pinchot Partners, the South Gifford Pinchot Forest Collaborative, and the Tapash Sustainable Forest Collaborative. In 2015, Sustainable Northwest founded the Northwest Community Forest Coalition, a similar group for organizations based on lands from California to Montana. ³

In 2022, Sustainable Northwest partnered with Country Natural Beef, the largest ranching cooperative in the western United States, to promote regenerative ranching practices. ³

Policy Advocacy

In 2000, Sustainable Northwest established the Rural Voices for Conservation Coalition (RVCC), ³ a coalition of 80 nonprofit, public, and private organizations, including conservation organizations, environmentalists, business owners, and federal and state land managers. ⁴ The RVCC works with the Brumidi Group to lobby the U.S. Congress to support environmentalist policies. ⁵

In 2010, Sustainable Northwest supported the passage of the federal Collaborative Forrest Restoration Program, which invested $52 million to restore over 1 million acres of forests in Oregon and Washington. ³

From 2019 to 2024, Sustainable Northwest helped attain $250 million in government funding for conservation efforts in the Pacific Northwest. ⁶

In 2021, Sustainable Northwest helped pass a plan devised by the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality to reduce greenhouse emissions in Oregon by 50 percent by 2035 and 90 percent by 2050. Critics described the plan as “an unachieved economic debacle.” ⁷

In 2023, Sustainable Northwest and the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts helped pass a bill in the Oregon legislature that approved $5 million in funding for conservation programs for waterways that supply drinking water. ⁸

Sustainable Northwest’s Making Energy Work Coalition is a coalition of Indigenous Tribes, farmers, ranchers, and state agencies across the Pacific Northwest that advocate for government policies to promote weather-dependent energy. In 2019, the Making Energy Work for Rural Oregon program won Best Non-profit Project from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar in Your Community Challenge. ^{3 9}

Funding

In 2024, Sustainable Northwest earned $9,464,220 in revenue, with $6,799,663 coming from government sources. ¹⁰ In that year, Sustainable Northwest received a $10 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to support the group’s regenerative ranching program for five years. ²

In September 2022, Sustainable Northwest and a group of partners received a $25 million grant from the USDA for the “Building the Climate-Smart Wood Economy” project, a plan to put millions of acres of forest under the management of sustainable nonprofit wood workers. ¹¹

Also in 2022, the USDA announced $50 million in grant funding for Sustainable Northwest and the Climate Trust to work on three sustainable ranching and reforestation projects. ¹²

In 2021, Sustainable Northwest received a $124,415 grant from the USDA to support its Sustainable Northwest NW Community Forest Coalition. ¹³

Also in 2021, Sustainable Northwest received an $80,000 grant from the USDA through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law for “the operation of firewood banks and to support feedstock acquisition.” ¹⁴

Leadership

As of 2026, Dylan Kruse was the president of Sustainable Northwest, a position he had held since November 2024. He started working at Sustainable Northwest in 2010 as an intern after graduating from Lewis and Clark College, and held numerous roles over a 15-year period before becoming the head of the organization. ^{6 15} In 2024, Kruse was paid $146,255 by Sustainable Northwest. ¹⁰

1. “Our Focus.” Sustainable Northwest. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/focus.
2. “Science-based and Community Built: USDA supports Sustainable Northwest’s Regenerative Ranching Program with $10 Million Grant.” Sustainable Northwest. July 22, 2024. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/blog/regenerative-ranching-usda-grant.
3. “Our History.” Sustainable Northwest. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/history.
4. “Who We Are.” Sustainable Northwest. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.ruralvoicescoalition.org/who-we-are.
5. “How We Accomplish Work at Multiple Levels.” RVCC. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.ruralvoicescoalition.org/national-level-engagement.
6. “From Intern to President, SNW Appoints Dylan Kruse to Helm.” Sustainable Northwest. September 26, 2024. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/blog/dylankrusepresident.
7. Sickinger, Ted. “Sweeping plan to wean Oregonians from fossil fuels approved by regulators.” The Oregonian. December 16, 2021. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.oregonlive.com/politics/2021/12/plan-to-wean-oregonians-from-fossil-fuels-prompts-new-outcry-from-industry.html.
8. “Press release—Oregon legislature approves new $5 million fund to protect community drinking water.” Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. June 29, 2023. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://oregonlandtrusts.org/source-water-2023/.
9. “The Making Energy Work Coalition.” Sustainable Northwest. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.sustainablenorthwest.org/mew.
10. “Sustainable Northwest Form 990.” ProPublica. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/931152222/202543099349300444/full.
11. Douglas, Jessica. “U.S. Department of Agriculture awards $25 million to accelerate the Climate-Smart Wood Economy.” EcoTrust. September 23, 2022. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://ecotrust.org/u-s-department-of-agriculture-awards-25-million-to-accelerate-the-climate-smart-wood-economy/.
12. Baumhardt, Alex. “Feds give Oregon groups $100 million for sustainable farming, ranching, timber.” Oregon Capital Chronicle. October 10, 2022. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/briefs/feds-give-oregon-groups-100-million-for-sustainable-farming-ranching-timber/.
13. “Project Grant 21DG11062765700.” Gov Tribe. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://govtribe.com/award/federal-grant-award/project-grant-21dg11062765700?recommendationType=similar_recommendations.
14. “23DG11062765771.” Higher Gov. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.highergov.com/grant/23DG11062765771/.
15. “Dylan Kruse.” LinkedIn. Accessed January 6, 2026. https://www.linkedin.com/in/dylan-kruse-61926682/.