This coalition of hiking and outdoor recreation groups works to
promote environmental conservation in the eight western states of Arizona,
California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, as well
as Alaska and Western Canada. Annual conventions, held primarily in California,
Oregon, and Washington, have been held by FWOC since 1932, gathering delegates
from member clubs to decide federation positions on conservation issues.
Resolutions are submitted during and before each conference by members and club
officials. The official resolutions are subsequently used to urge legislators,
public officials, and private bodies to work for conservation goals. Annual
reports are submitted by the federation's elected officials, and FWOC has also
kept member clubs informed about new developments in the preservation of the
West's natural resources through an annual periodical. Published as
FWOC's mission is to create a strong regional alliance of organizations dedicated to environmental protection. Working together, member clubs helped secure passage of the Wilderness Act of 1964. They made important contributions to the establishment of the North Cascades National Park and the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington State, as well as to the establishment of various wilderness areas in the national forests of Oregon and California. FWOC also helped to ensure the establishment of a national monument in the Sierra Nevada range to protect the remaining Giant Sequoia trees.
For some twenty years, FWOC shared a Northwest conservation representative with the Sierra Club to ensure further representation of the area's conservation goals. Michael McCloskey was first to hold the position (1961-1964), followed by Rodger Pegues (1964-1967). Brock Evans held the position from 1967 until 1973, when he became the Washington, D.C. representative. Roger Mellem was the acting Northwest conservation representative for 1973. Doug Scott continued the position until 1978, followed by the last representative, Jim Blomquist (1978-1980). The representative's main duty was to lobby for Northwest conservation through testimony at related hearings and through extensive correspondence with interested parties.
Arranged in 4 accessions:
Consult the scope and content for each accession listed below.
Open to all users.
The creator's literary rights were not transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.
Hazel Wolf's personal papers (Accession Nos. 3647-1 through 3647-7) in the division also include material relating to Wolf's activities with FWOC.
FWOC's publications, including
The University of Oregon Libraries Special Collections division has four boxes of records of the Federation of Western Outdoor Clubs, spanning the years 1931-1953.
The Federation of Washington Outdoor Clubs website has been regularly
captured by the Internet Archive Wayback Machine since 2016. The snapshots can
be viewed here:
Accession 1886-8 is organized into three major series: intraorganizational correspondence, general correspondence, and issues related to geographical areas. Intraorganizational correspondence is arranged chronologically and divided by creator. The correspondence of Hasse Bunnelle is related to her editiorial position. Most of the Northwest conservation representative's correspondence was handled by Brock Evans (1967-1973). The treasurer's correspondence, which includes financial statements, was created by Una Davies (1964-1968) and Katherine Martin (1968-1976). The bulk of the miscellaneous intraorganizational correspondence was created by Betty Hughes as FWOC secretary (1961-1970), vice president (1970-1971), and president (1971-1973). Her major correspondents included the following FWOC presidents: Clark Jones (1965-1967), Ken Baldwin (1967-1969), Frank Fickeisen (1969-1971), and vice president during her term, Robert Wenkam. Hazel Wolf's correspondence as the vice president for Western Washington composes the rest of the miscellaneous intraorganizational correspondence from 1974-1976.
General correspondence is arranged alphabetically. California conservation issues and legislators are featured in the correspondence. The prominent Geographical Areas series is arranged alphabetically, grouped by U.S. state unless the topics cross state lines, such as the Colorado River. The Geographical Areas files include wilderness proposals, correspondence, and maps related to the specific areas. Redwood National Park in California is well documented.
Records of the Federation's annual conventions, 1960-1975, are also included.
Records of the Natural Resources Council of America (NRCA) are also included in Accession 1886-8.
FWOC's publications were separated from these archival records and
relocated to the UW Libraries' collection of published materials. Issues of
This accession also includes records of the Western Forest Environmental Discussion Group (WFEDG).