The Wild & Scenic Film Festival was started in 2003 by the South Yuba River Citizens League, a nonprofit river conservation organization located in Nevada City, CA in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. The organization was formed in 1983 when a small group of concerned citizens banded together to fight against several proposed dams. The festival's namesake is in celebration of achieving Wild & Scenic status on 39 miles of the South Yuba River in 1999.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival is a call to action! Films can serve as a potent tool to educate and inspire activism and growth, and Wild & Scenic is committed to offering programming that addresses environmental injustice, racism, and inequity as well as lack of representation in the outdoors and environmental movements. The films chosen by WSFF illustrate not only the challenges facing our planet but the work communities are doing to protect the environment and the places we love. The stories give us a sense of place and what it means to be responsible stewards of the earth.