Conservation Alliance Awards $250,000 in Grants to 10 Organizations

Bend, Ore., October 2, 2006 — The Conservation Alliance sent checks totaling $250,000 to ten organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The donations marked the Alliance’s final disbursal of funding for 2006, and brought the year’s contributions to a new high of $530,000.

By a vote of the group’s 120 member companies, The Conservation Alliance made donations to ten grassroots conservation organizations as follows:

Organization (Location)Amount
1.Alaska Wilderness League (Washington, DC)$30,000
2.Greater Yellowstone Coalition (Bozeman, MT)$30,000
3.Carolina Climber’s Coalition (Spartanburg, SC)$30,000
4.Northeast Wilderness Trust (Boston, MA)$30,000
5.Colorado Environmental Coaltion (Denver, CO)$25,000
6.American Whitewater (Cullowhee, NC)$20,000
7.Deschutes Basin Land Trust (Bend, OR)$25,000
8.Nevada Wilderness Project (Reno, NV)$20,000
9.Forest Guardians (Santa FE, NM)$20,000
10.Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (Ottawa, ON)$20,000
Total$250,000

“Through The Conservation Alliance, our member companies are supporting the most effective conservation organizations in the US,” said Conservation Alliance Executive Director John Sterling. “We’ve already celebrated several significant conservation victories this year, and look forward to more good news from this round of grantees.”

This round of grant recipients reflects the geographic distribution of Conservation Alliance members. Conservation Alliance funds will support efforts to: purchase a popular climbing area in North Carolina; secure new Wilderness designations for federal lands in Nevada, Colorado, and Alaska; protect a private land wilderness in New Hampshire; improve federal land management in Wyoming and New Mexico; restore rivers in the Carolinas; save a 9.6-million-acre watershed in Canada’s Northwest Territories; and protect a 30,000-acre forest in Central Oregon.

“We work hard to identify great projects throughout North America,” said Sterling. “It’s important to our members that we support a diverse range of organizations.”

With the conclusion of this funding cycle, the Conservation Alliance has contributed more than $5.3 million since its founding in 1989. The Alliance has budgeted to make $500,000 in grants in 2006, a 38 percent increase in just two years.

“The buzz around The Conservation Alliance continues to grow. We’ve added more than 25 new members this year, which increases our budget to support more conservation efforts,” said Sterling. “The outdoor industry is really stepping up in its support for wildland protection.”

About the Conservation Alliance:
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.

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 $4.5 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 34 million acres of wildlands; 25 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.


BRIEF OVERVIEW OF GRANTS


1.Alaska Wilderness League: Arctic Refuge Campaign to secure permanent protection for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

2.Greater Yellowstone Coalition: Wyoming Range Campaign to protect up to 700,000 acres in the Wyoming Range from proposed oil and gas development.

3.Carolina Climbers Coalition: Laurel Know Acquisition Campaign to purchase and protect Laurel Knob – a granite climbing destination in North Carolina and its surrounding forest and wetlands.

4.Northeast Wilderness Trust: Wapack Wilderness Campaign to purchase the 1,700-acre Wapack Wilderness in southern New Hampshire.

5. Colorado Environmental Coalition: Rocky Mountain National Park, Brown’s Canyon, and Gunnison River area Wilderness Campaigns to secure permanent protection for wildlands in three areas in Colorado.

6.American Whitewater: Headwaters of the Little Tennessee Campaign to restore several headwaters rivers in the Little Tennessee River Watershed.

7.Deschutes Basin Land Trust: Skyline Forest Campaign to purchase and protect a 33,000-acre forest adjacent to public lands in the Cascade mountains of Cenral Oregon.

8.Nevada Wilderness Project: Southern Nevada Wilderness Campaign to secure permanent protection for 200,000 acres of federal land in Southern Nevada.

9.Forest Guardians: Wild Forests, Wild Waters Campaign to protect streams and rivers within 1.7 million acres of roadless national forests as Outstanding National Resource Waters.

10.Canadian Parks & Wilderness Society: Nahanni Forever Campaign to protect the 9.6 million-acre South Nahanni Watershed in Canada’s Northwest Territories.