Mitch Friedman

Mitchell A. Friedman (born 1963) is an American conservation biologist and activist who founded the organization Conservation Northwest in 1989 and now serves as its executive director. Active in the U.S. state of Washington, Friedman published early in his career on protection of the North Cascades ecosystem. His 2025 memoir, Conservation Confidential, was published as a strategy guide for activists based on his radical experiences with Earth First! and less polarizing leadership of Conservation Northwest.

Early life and education Mitch Friedman was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1963 or 1964. (In 2012, Friedman was 48 years old.) Also during his upbringing, Friedman was shocked during a family trip to a national forest in Colorado that logs were allowed to be harvested from within the supposedly-protected area.

While attending Highland Park High School, Friedman played on the football team, but stood out more for his successes on the pole vault, in which he was a state medalist. He enrolled at Montana State University in 1981 to continue his pole vaulting career,

Friedman published books in 1988 and 1993 applying principles of conservation biology to the protection of ecosystems in the North Cascades and wider Pacific Northwest: Forever Wild (1988) and Cascadia Wild (1993).

In the late 1980s, Friedman, then with Earth First!, devised the idea for what became the Ancient Forest Rescue Expedition, a 1989 cross-country tour of a trailered old-growth log intended to nationalize support for protection of ancient forests. Driving the log (named "The Big One" and displaying a banner reading "Save Our Ancient Forests!") coast-to-coast through over 40 U.S. states, the group of expeditioners brought attention to the issue of old-growth logging by displaying the "monster" log, sourced from Washington state. At the time of his organization's founding, Friedman had never held a single job "for longer than a few months". Under his leadership, Conservation Northwest has been involved in several notable advancements. This also marked the first occasion Friedman's group had attempted to preserve forests through economic engagements such as rights purchases rather than lobbying or legal battles; because the legal challenges originally posed by the organization did not pan out, Friedman said they were left "no option but to be innovative" and fundraise to purchase the timber rights themselves. The Forest Service eventually rejected their bid, refusing to sell to a group unwilling to log the land.

The Northwest Ecosystem Alliance later struck a deal with the state of Washington to transfer parcels of land in the Loomis State Forest away from school trusts—where trees could be cut down to create funds for public schools—and into a Natural Resources Conservation Area where the trees would be protected from logging. The transfer was completed in 2000, and was based on a 1998 settlement agreement. During that time period, the Northwest Ecosystem Alliance fundraised over $16 million, the appraised value equivalent to cut trees, in order to protect trees within the forest from actually being cut down. Friedman's organization received the final $3.5 million needed to complete the deal from Paul Allen's foundation.

By 2014, eight thousand acres of land adjacent to Lake Whatcom had become the seventh-largest locally-managed park in the United States due to a reconveyance advocated for by the Whatcom Land Trust and Conservation Northwest. Parts of the land were leased to private forestry companies until it became a park.

Conservation Northwest became an affiliate member organization of the National Wildlife Federation in 2016. In 2017, the headquarters of Conservation Northwest were moved from Bellingham, Washington, to Seattle. Conservation Northwest led an effort (which they had joined in 2001 ) to protect the core of Blanchard Mountain that culminated in 2018 when the Washington State Legislature included in its annual budget bill the final tranche to save the core of Blanchard State Forest from logging.

As part of their goal to link Cascades habitats on both sides of Interstate 90, Conservation Northwest coordinated efforts that induced WSDOT to build a wildlife overpass over I-90, which animals began using in 2018.

In 2021, Conservation Northwest facilitated and funded the purchase of a 9,000+ acre ranch by the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation. Conservation Northwest hails this as, for the time, the largest privately-funded return of land to indigenous peoples in the Western United States.

In a 2021 KUOW article, Friedman is quoted and states his philosophy on Washington forests: "These lands are a gift that should not have to be squeezed for every dollar when they already benefit us in so many ways ..." Among his awards, Friedman was in 2022 awarded a Conservation Leadership Award by the Wilburforce Foundation, one of four recipients that year. Also in 2022, the National Wildlife Federation honored Conservation Northwest with their Affiliate of the Year award.

Friedman's memoir and activism strategy guide, Conservation Confidential: A Wild Path to a Less Polarizing and More Effective Activism, was published in 2025 by Spokane-based publisher Latah Books. Friedman shared that his goal with the book was to advise against polarizing tactics in favor of more collaborative approaches to conservation. (Friedman had publicly endorsed the same sentiment in a prior 1996 speech.) Also in 2025, Friedman authored an article taking the controversial position that he "[supports] killing some barred owls" due to their role in the declining populations of northern spotted owls. Efn|Friedman's efforts to maintain spotted owl populations stretch back to at least 1986, when he participated in a protest about the cutting of spotted owl–habitat trees in Washington.

Personal life While a conservationist, Friedman is also an occasional fisherman and deer hunter. A self-described "ironic hunter", he aims to shoots deer and elk from overpopulated herds.

Friedman also volunteers towards the cause of Ukraine defense. For this work, he has been named a "fella" by the North Atlantic Fella Organization.