Indigenous Just Transition is an Indigenous-led organization working to protect land, restore ecosystems, and advance Indigenous stewardship as communities move away from extractive economies toward regenerative ones. IJT’s flagship initiative, Wasa’tos, focuses on the ancestral homelands of the Wanapum people in southeast Washington, near Saddle Mountain along the Columbia River corridor. This area contains one of the largest remaining intact shrub-steppe ecosystems in North America — a rare landscape of exceptional ecological and cultural significance. The initiative targets permanent protection of approximately 25,000 acres of privately owned land, connected to hundreds of thousands of acres of adjacent public lands managed by the BLM, DOE, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The Wasa’tos landscape supports remarkable biodiversity, including 9,600 acres of priority habitat for the critically endangered Columbia Basin pygmy rabbit, as well as greater sage-grouse, ferruginous hawk, western gray squirrel, migratory birds, and native pollinators. Groundwater-dependent ecosystems and intact watershed networks sustain both wildlife movement and long-standing Wanapum stewardship traditions. Without intervention, the region faces growing threats from fragmentation, incompatible land use, and climate-driven water stress.
IJT is executing a phased strategy combining private land acquisition, federal co-management planning, and ecosystem restoration. Conservation outcomes will strengthen climate resilience, prevent habitat fragmentation, support pygmy rabbit recovery, and stabilize regional water systems. The initiative also creates tangible community benefits — local employment in restoration and habitat monitoring, expanded land-based learning opportunities, and increased Indigenous participation in conservation decision-making.
