Conservation Confidential

A Wild Path to a Less Polarizing and More Effective Activism

By: Mitch Friedman

Narrated by: Mitch Friedman

Conservation Confidential recounts the wild path Mitch Friedman took from radical Earth First! activist engaging in controversial protests to the founder and longtime director of Conservation Northwest. The book documents challenges, success stories, and key lessons along the way to helping preserve Northwest ancient forests, peaceably recover wolves in the region, and much more.

​Part memoir, part guide on strategy for activists and liberal citizens, Conservation Confidential offers the distilled wisdom of experience that Friedman searched for as a young activist but couldn’t find. These provocative lessons are timely not only for conservation campaigns but for our national political moment at large, extolling the virtues of collaborative tactics that succeed by enacting common values rather than polarizing. Here is the rare instance of an accomplished activist leader challenging his own movement to reject its hubris to better serve both nature and our ailing democracy.

Praise for Conservation Confidential:

​"Older generations of activists owe it to their successors to pass down what they've learned, a charge Mitch Friedman forthrightly fulfills in these pages! His advice won't please everyone, but it demands engagement from anyone who cares about the wild world around us." ~Bill McKibben, author of Here Comes the Sun and co-founder of 350.org

​"A legend in the conservation community, with myriad landmark successes over his decades of activism, Mitch Friedman distills the lessons he has learned. Brutally honest, poignantly reflective, and beautifully written, Conservation Confidential is the open-hearted story of a life well-lived." ~Denis Hayes, CEO of the Bullitt Foundation, author of Cowed, and national coordinator of the first Earth Day in 1970

©2025 Mitch Friedman (P)2025 Mitch Friedman

Compelling Story and a Nuanced Perspective

Friedman does an excellent job chronicling his own personal development as an advocate and activist while also telling eye opening stories about the recent history of conservation in Washington. His narration, and the occasional inclusion of supplemental audio, make that telling all the more engaging.