Representatives from The North Face, Osprey, The Forest Group, and The Conservation Alliance spent two days in meetings last week with 13 House and Senate offices to show support for a legislative package that includes more than 150 public lands bills.
Attending on Thursday and Friday were Brook Shinsky (The North Face), Megan Waterman (Osprey), Deanna Kavanaugh-Jones (The Forest Group), and Sterling. The group focused on a package with proposals to:
Protect 128,000 acres of Wilderness and 80 miles of rivers on Oregons Mount Hood
Designate 250,000 acres in Rocky Mountain National Park as Wilderness
Secure Wild and Scenic River designation for 440 miles of streams in Wyomings Snake River headwaters
Prohibit new oil and gas leases on 1.2 million acres of the Wyoming Range
Protect 92,000 acres of public land in West Virginia and Virginia
Protect more than 600,000 acres of Wilderness in Californias Eastern Sierra, White Mountains, and desert regions.
Preserve the Badlands and Spring Basin, 40,000 acres of desert wilderness in Oregon
The Conservation Alliance is an organization of outdoor businesses whose collective contributions support grassroots environmental organizations and their efforts to protect wild places where outdoor enthusiasts recreate. Alliance funds have played a key role in protecting rivers, trails, wildlands and climbing areas.
“This package of bills represents a nationwide conservation agenda,” said John Sterling, Conservation Alliance Executive Director. “Our members understand that protected public lands are important to the future of the outdoor industry.”
The proposal could go to the Senate floor for a vote the week of Sept. 22. If it passes, it will then be up to the House to consider the legislation before Congress adjourns in early October to prepare for the Nov. 4 election.
“We hope Congress takes action on this historic legislation before the elections,” said Sterling. “Each provision in the bill has broad, bipartisan support, which voters will appreciate.”
Before these wildland-protection campaigns took legislative form, The Conservation Alliance supported local, grassroots organizations for their efforts to demonstrate that the places should be protected. Whenever possible, the Alliance supplements funding with efforts by our member companies to voice business support for conservation efforts.
“We have invested our members dues heavily in these conservation efforts, and hope to show an ROI by the end of the year,” said Sterling.
Membership in the Alliance is open to companies representing all aspects of the outdoor industry, including manufacturers, retailers, publishers, mills and sales representatives. The result is a diverse group of businesses whose livelihood depends on protecting our natural environment.
Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $6.5 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 38 million acres of wildlands; 26 dams have either been stopped or removed; and the group helped preserve access to more than 16,000 miles of waterways and several climbing areas.
For complete information on the Conservation Alliance, see www.conservationalliance.com.
