The Conservation Alliance, a coalition of outdoor industry businesses working to fund conservation and recreation causes, today announced its first round of funding for 2004. Five grants, totaling $160,000, were awarded by the coalition to organizations working to protect lands for habitat and recreation.

Grant recipients include the following:

  • Alaska Conservation Foundation (Anchorage, Ala.) – A $32,000 grant was awarded to support the foundation’s Defend Alaska NOW! Campaign, a campaign to defend and protect key recreation and public lands in Alaska. The campaign is working to stop logging of old growth timber in the Tongass National Forest and other public lands; to protect parks, refuges, and other public interest lands from harmful development; and to help prevent oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
  • American Wildlands (Bozeman, Mont.) – A $32,000 grant was awarded to support the organization’s Northern Yellowstone Wildlands Campaign which is working to increase protection for wildlands and rivers that are threatened by expanding off-road vehicle use and resulting erosion, logging and related road construction, as well as human development near parts of the forest. Through public education and advocacy efforts, the campaign is working to protect up to one million acres of the Gallatin National Forest not formally designated as wilderness, and nearly 40 miles of the Gallatin River.
  • Arizona Wilderness Coalition (Alpine, Ariz.) – A $32,000 grant was awarded to support the coalition’s Southern Arizona Wilderness Campaign, a proactive campaign to designate new wilderness areas in southern Arizona by conducting wilderness inventories, educating the public, and mobilizing grassroots advocates for lasting wilderness and water protection.
  • California Wilderness Coalition (Davis, Calif.) – A $32,000 grant was awarded to support the coalition’s Defense of the Wild Campaign which is working to bring together individuals and organizations to defend California from immediate threats including irresponsible logging and mining, off-road vehicle abuse, and energy extraction.
  • Friends of the Blackwater (Charleston, W.Va.) – A $32,000 grant was awarded to support the organization’s efforts to transfer the remaining private in-holding in the Blackwater Canyon to public ownership, as well as to prevent the Blackwater Canyon Trail in the Monongahela National Forest from becoming a logging road, and helping connect the trail to the American Discovery Trail route.