Kirk Kirkland has been an environmental advocate for over 30 years. He has worked with Tahoma Audubon, Sierra Club and Futurewise as an environmental advocate, appearing before such bodies as the Washington State Legislature and the Pierce County Council. He retired from Tahoma Audubon in 2023 when they were considering changing their priorities.
While active in local politics, he has partnered with many groups and together the local environmental community has preserved wildlife habitat, used the Growth Management Act to limit suburban sprawl, and preserved open space through Conservation Futures funding.
On this site you can learn about current environmental and political issues. This includes efforts to protect shorelines, keep the water in our streams clean, create livable communities in our county, and preserve wildlife corridors along our streams in urban areas. This site is not intended to compete with any existing environmental group like Tahoma Bird Alliance or Sierra Club. We do not offer memberships, meetings, or fundraising. We are a small group of volunteers with political experience who know how to get things accomplished.
Working together, we can create a better future.
Brett Johnson chairs our political committee, focusing on key local races in Pierce County. He also revises and contributes content for the newsletter and website. Endorsements are an important way to identify strong candidates with environmental goals and introduce them to advocates and donors. A complete slate of candidates encourages people to not just vote for President and Governor, but also farther down the ballot to elect folks who can make a difference and get things done right here in our own community.
Brett has volunteered for over 25 years with campaign efforts in Pierce County and northern Colorado. He canvasses neighborhoods, connects with voters, and otherwise supports candidates out in the community. As a habitat steward, he started out with the Pierce Conservation District Stream Team, and then coordinated Scotch broom removal on several large properties. Later on, he joined and helped lead the Poudre Wilderness Volunteers Weed Crew out of Fort Collins, Colorado. More recently, he coordinated the Ivy League at Point Defiance and the Legion of Broom at Parkland Prairie, where most of the English ivy and Scotch broom was removed for native habitat restoration. He was named the 2002 Pierce Conservation District Volunteer of the Year and the 2016 Outstanding Adult Volunteer by Pierce County Parks & Recreation. He has served on several local boards, including the Metro Parks Nature & Environment Advisory Council and the Pierce County Arts Commission. Prior to joining the Coalition, he chaired the former Sierra Club Tatoosh Group Political Committee, which endorsed and supported environmentally-minded candidates throughout Pierce County for several years.
Brett grew up in Puyallup and graduated from Rogers High School. As a student at the University of Puget Sound, he earned the college’s first interdisciplinary degree in Environmental Policy. He then joined the Peace Corps in Nepal for two years as a Soil & Water Conservation Volunteer. He is grateful for this time living and working with local villagers, learning to speak fluent Nepali, and traveling daily by foot in the Himalayas. Upon returning home, he taught pre-license courses to pesticide applicators, developed the first wave of online courses, and assisted with diagnosing plant diseases, insect problems, and identifying plant specimens at WSU Puyallup. Since that time, he has educated young people for nearly 20 years and lives in Tacoma with his wife and daughter.