Our Mission

Great Old Broads for Wilderness is a national grassroots organization, led by women, that engages and inspires activism to preserve and protect wilderness and wild lands.

Conceived by older women who love wilderness, Broads gives voice to the millions of Americans who want to protect their public lands as Wilderness for this and future generations.

As a women-led* organization, we bring knowledge, leadership, and humor to the conservation movement to protect our last wild places on earth.

* For Broads, the term “women” includes and represents anyone who self-identifies as a woman.

Vision:

Wild public lands are treasured for their intrinsic values and protected for current and future generations.

Values Statement:

Wilderness and public lands are for everyone; they are the heritage of all and a gift to future generations. Wild places, once destroyed, may be gone forever.

We value:

National public lands and waters.
The spirit and intent of national conservation legislation such as the Wilderness Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Endangered Species Act, and Antiquities Act, which protect wild places that once destroyed, may be gone forever.
The natural world as a community where humans, as one small piece of an interconnected whole, must take responsibility for care.
Sound science as a basis for informed decisions.
Being bold, courageous, and fearless in defense of wild lands.
Humor, grace, common sense, and passion.
Openness to all perspectives.
Dialogue to resolve conflicts.
Expanding racial, cultural, and gender diversity in the conservation movement.
Broadness as a state of mind.

Broads Commitment to Behaviors

Respect for People and Communities where we work.

Broads respects the people and partners whose lives and livelihoods are linked to the natural systems we seek to conserve. We respect the needs, values, and traditions of local communities, and we forge relationships based on mutual benefit and trust.

Show integrity and professionalism in our actions.

Broads demonstrates responsibility for our decisions and their consequences. We are accountable to each other, to the mission, to our donors, members, partners, and the public.

Broads is committed to:

Building a diverse, inclusive, and broader conservation community.
Acting honestly, truthfully, and with integrity in all our dealings.
Avoiding conflicts of interest.
Appropriately handling actual or apparent conflicts of interest in our relationships.
Treating every individual with dignity and respect.
Treating our employees with respect, fairness, and good faith and providing conditions of employment that safeguard their rights and welfare.
Being a good nonprofit citizen and complying with both the spirit and the letter of the law.
Acting responsibly toward the communities in which we work.
Being responsible, transparent, and accountable for all of our actions.
Championing collaboration, creativity, congeniality, and conscientiousness, which we believe is largely the basis of professionalism.