Two of the most active environmental groups in the Northern Rockies have merged to become the WildWest Institute.

The Missoula-based Ecology Center and the Native Forest Network are combining after nearly two years of planning, according to a press release from WildWest.

The new organization advocates policies that promote "ecological and economic sustainability through restoring naturally functioning ecosystems degraded by systemic mismanagement," the release says.

The Ecology Center has been one of the most prominent plaintiffs in environmental litigation in the Northern Rockies, and the Native Forest Network has concentrated primarily on activism in natural-resource-policy development.

The Ecology Center has been particularly active on the Kootenai National Forest, leading a lawsuit targeting a series of timber sales several years ago and launching another round of litigation aimed at timber sales this year.

WildWest will emphasize three areas.

"Our Ecosystem Defense Program develops and implements strategies to ensure that the U.S. Forest Service complies with ecological protection requirements within federal forest plans and other statutes," according to the press release.

The organization also will pursue a watershed and wildland fire restoration program.

"Our goal is work together with diverse interests to help be a catalyst for the establishment of a new, sustainable restoration economy in our region for the 21st century and beyond," the group says. "This program is critical to changing the paradigm from local workers engaged in unsustainable resource extraction to finding employment doing ecologically based restoration and community wildfire protection work that benefits both the landscape and human communities."

And the group will focus on protection from development of some roadless areas in the Northern Rockies, it says.