With proper care, the forest can also offer low-impact recreational opportunities to outdoor enthusiasts and families without threatening its rare ecology. The Sierra Club, Wilderness Society, NW Ecosystem Alliance, The Seattle Audubon Society, Pacific Crest Biodiversity Project, The Alpine Lakes Protection Society, and the Washington Trails Association have formed the Cascades Conservation Partnership to purchase 75,000 acres of checkerboard timberlands, which were conveyed to the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1864. This land, presently owned by private logging companies, contains almost all of the old-growth forest still in private hands in this area of the Northwest. Some of these trees are over 800 years old, a truly irreplaceable resource. The forests include both wet west side forests of Douglas Fir and the drier east side, with large Ponderosa Pines in open park like settings.
Some areas contain alpine meadows.
There are large numbers of elk and deer. Over 1,000 species are considered dependent upon or associated with late successional forests like those found in the Cascades Partnership's project area. Purchase of these lands will also strengthen the vital wildlife corridors connecting protected habitats in North Cascades and Mount Rainier National Parks. The area between Alpine Lakes and Mount Rainier is the narrowest band of public ownership in the entire Cascade Range, from Northern California to Southern British Columbia. Numerous creatures require connected tracts of habitat or their population becomes isolated and will decline.