The Conservation Alliance sent grants totaling $800,000 to 21 organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The Conservation Alliance has awarded more than $20 million to grassroots organizations working to protect wild lands and waterways across North America since 1989.
The Conservation Alliance membership includes more than 210 businesses that care passionately about protecting wild places for their habitat and recreation values. Each member company contributes annual dues to a central grant fund. By a vote of these members, The Conservation Alliance made donations to 21 grassroots conservation organizations as follows:
Organization | Project | Amount |
Alaska Wilderness League | Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign | $ 50,000 |
California Wilderness Coalition | Northwest California Mountains and Rivers, and Central Coast Wild Heritage Campaigns | $ 50,000 |
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society-Quebec | Magpie River Protection Campaign | $ 35,000 |
Climbing Resource Access Group of Vermont | Bolton Dome Conservation Campaign | $ 40,000 |
Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness | Scotchman Peaks Wilderness Campaign | $ 25,000 |
International Mountain Bicycling Association | Protecting Montana’s Gallatin Gateway | $ 20,000 |
Methow Valley Citizens Council | Methow Headwaters Campaign | $ 40,000 |
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance | Chaco Protection Campaign | $ 40,000 |
Northeast Wilderness Trust | Eagle Mountain Campaign | $ 40,000 |
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness | Campaign to Save the Boundary Waters | $ 50,000 |
Ohio Environmental Council | ReCreation For All Campaign | $ 40,000 |
Oregon Wild | Oregon State Scenic Waterways Campaign | $ 35,000 |
Outdoor Alliance | Protecting North Carolina’s Mountain Treasures Campaign | $ 45,000 |
Sierra Club of BC | Securing Permanent Protection for the Flathead River Valley Campaign | $ 20,000 |
The Wilderness Society | Gunnison Public Lands Initiative | $ 45,000 |
Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership | Safeguarding Montana’s Wild Backcountry Campaign | $ 30,000 |
Trout Unlimited – Montana | Rattlesnake Creek Dam Removal | $ 40,000 |
Trust for Public Land | Catamount Community Forest Project | $ 40,000 |
Ventura Land Trust | Walker-Hearne Ranch Acquisition Project | $ 40,000 |
Virginia Wilderness Committee | George Washington National Forest Project | $ 25,000 |
Winter Wildlands Alliance | Northern Sierra Management Planning Campaign | $ 50,000 |
Total $800,000
“We identified and funded some great conservation projects during this funding cycle,” said John Sterling, executive director of The Conservation Alliance. “Our members stepped up in a big way to support this important work.”
Four of the 21 organizations received funding from The Conservation Alliance for the first time: Montana Trout Unlimited, Virginia Wilderness Committee, Ventura Land Trust and Ohio Environmental Council.
Included in this round of grants are: four private land acquisitions, four wilderness and wild and scenic river campaigns, four agency management planning projects, four projects that seek to protect land and water threatened by energy development, two river projection campaigns, one climbing area acquisition, one dam removal and one wild land protection campaign. Collectively, these projects seek to protect 7,194,360 acres and 928 river miles.
“This grant gives us the needed capacity to mobilize skiers, riders, winter mountaineers, snowshoers and all of us who love our public lands in winter to speak up for the protection of 4.7 million acres of at-risk winter landscapes on the five Sierra Nevada forests currently embarking on winter management plans,” said David Page, advocacy director for Winter Wildlands Alliance.
Each project funded during this grant cycle was first nominated for funding by a Conservation Alliance member company. Conservation Alliance member companies also play a key role in determining which organizations receive funding.
“Our member companies understand that funding conservation work is more important now than ever,” said Sterling.
For a complete overview of each grant, visit conservationalliance.com/seasons.