The Fish & Wildlife Defense Fund was formed in 2002, then chartered as a nonprofit in 2026 by a coalition of global field biologists, Wildlife Biotechnology, commercial fishermen, tribal preservationists, and civil-rights attorneys who had watched, for two decades, as America's working conservation model was litigated out from under the people who pay for it.
We exist to defend the North American Model of Wildlife Preservation — the idea that wildlife is a public trust, that access is a public right, and that hikers, cyclists, climbers, Sportsmen and women, through licenses, taxes, and stewardship, are its single largest funder.
That model is under sustained legal pressure. We answer that pressure in Court filings, briefs, in depositions, and on the record — not in press releases.
Our cases are built on population data, peer review, and biologists who have actually been in the field — not on talking points.
Policy follows litigation. We file, we appeal, and we hold agencies to the administrative record they built.
Our board is seated by the communities we defend. No federal money. No corporate sponsorships with strings.
We tell the truth about the sustainable use of wildlife — in language a reader outside the beltway can actually use.
A team of attorneys and biologists. One office in Roseburg, Oregon. An affiliated network of litigators who take cases pro bono/at cost.
The cases we argued. The cases we're bringing. Where every dollar landed.
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