Christine Mahler
Executive Director, Washington Wildlife & Recreation Coalition
The Basics
Nonprofit Name: Washington Wildlife & Recreation Coalition
Location: Seattle, WA
Founded: 1989
Full-Time Employees: 4
Products: Public Lands!
Social: Facebook Instagram
Claim to Fame: 1400 projects preserving creating/improving 457 local parks, preserving over 200,000 acres of habitat, and almost 5000 miles of streambank and shoreline—bottom line: making Washington a better place to live for humans and animals alike!
The Culture
The best thing about working here is:
Working with people from all walks of life who are passionate about the outdoors… oh, and the sounds of our old-man dogs snoring the day away at the office!
When we’re not working, we’re:
Backpacking, hiking, kayaking, hunting, running, bicycling, gardening, or just visiting our local park. And baking some sourdough bread on those rare rainy Seattle days!
What we’re reading:
Dear Girls; The Geography of Bliss; Disappearing Earth; The Book of Night Women
What we’re listening to:
“The Highwomen” by The Highwomen and The Wild, CodeSwitch, and Without Fail Podcasts
If they made a movie about our workplace, it would be called:
"Rain or Shine; The Collective Power of People Who Would Rather Be Outside"
Inclusion in the outdoors matters because:
Nature is for everyone! Everyone should have access to the benefits of nature, whether it’s in the backcountry or out their backdoor. We need to redefine the outdoors and recognize that you don’t have to be roughing it to be outdoorsy. We need to meet people where they are and accept them for who they are. And that the more people we welcome into the “outdoors” tent, the more people will care about them, and the more people will take action to protect them, whether that’s picking up a piece of litter in the park, or lobbying for funding for more public lands.
Five years down the line, it’s our hope that:
The outdoor community will come together, working across boundaries like ethnicity, gender, class, and politics to realize that the more we work together, the more we can achieve. We need hunters and environmentalists, urban gardeners and 4th generation farmers, mountain bikers and horseback riders to all come together in one room to work together to preserve and protect these lands we love!