Conservation Alliance Awards $350,000 In Grants To 13 Organizations

The Conservation Alliance sent checks totaling $350,000 to 13 organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The donations marked the Alliance’s first disbursal of funding for 2007, and represent the largest single funding round in the organization’s history.

By a vote of the group’s 135 member companies, The Conservation Alliance made donations to 13 grassroots conservation organizations as follows:

Organization (Location) Amount
1. Alaska Coalition (Washington, DC) $35,000
2. Appalachian Voices (Boone, NC) $30,000
3. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (Salt Lake City, UT) $25,000
4. California Wilderness Coalition (Oakland, CA) $35,000
5. Campaign for the Snake Headwaters (Jackson, WY) $30,000
6. Raincoast Conservation Society (Victoria, BC) $30,000
7. Conservation Northwest (Bellingham, WA) $25,000
8. Idaho Conservation League (Boise, ID) $25,000
9. Friends of Nevada Wilderness (Reno, NV) $25,000
10. Arizona Wilderness Coalition (Tucson, AZ) $30,000
11. Transboundary Watershed Alliance (Whitehorse, Yukon) $25,000
12. Winter Wildlands Alliance (Boise, ID) $20,000
13. West Virginia Wilderness Coalition (Masontown, WV) $15,000
Total $350,000

“Conservation Alliance member companies continue to demonstrate their commitment to protecting North America’s wild places,” said John Sterling, Conservation Alliance Executive Director. “Our membership has doubled over the past two years, so we are able to fund a larger pool of organizations.”

This round of grant recipients reflects the geographic distribution of Conservation Alliance members. Conservation Alliance funds will support efforts to: add wilderness acres in Joshua Tree National Park; protect wild rivers in Wyoming; improve mining regulations to protect mountains in Appalachia; promote non-motorized winter recreation throughout the West; secure new Wilderness designations in West Virginia, Idaho, Arizona, and Washington; and protect two spectacular wildlands in Canada.

“This slate of grantees is leading the most exciting conservation work in North America,” said Sterling. “Our members do a great job identifying these projects.”

This is the first of two grant disbursements The Conservation Alliance will make in 2007. With the recent increase in membership, the Alliance plans to contribute at least $700,000 this year. That amount is twice what the organization granted in 2004.

“There is a real hunger in the outdoor industry to make a difference on conservation,” said Sterling. “Our members are truly walking the talk.”

(See next page for a description of each project.)

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 $5.5 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 Coalition: America’s Arctic and Alaska Rainforest Campaign to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Alaska’s temperate rainforests.

2. Appalachian Voices: Mountaintop Removal Campaign to build public support to end mountaintop removal coal mining.

3. Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance: Off-Road Vehicle Campaign to protect wilderness-quality lands in Utah’s Redrock Desert from ORV damage.

4. California Wilderness Coalition: California Wild Heritage Campaign to protect 125,000 acres of wilderness in the California desert.

5. Campaign for the Snake Headwaters: Wild and Scenic Rivers Campaign to protect the best remaining free-flowing rivers and trout fisheries in Wyoming’s Snake River drainage.

6. Raincoast Conservation Society: Marine Conservation Initiative to uphold the moratoria on oil & gas development and tanker traffic in and around BC’s Great Bear Rainforest.

7. Conservation Northwest: Columbia Highlands Initiative to secure permanent protection for 360,000 acres of key wildlife habitat in northeast Washington.

8. Idaho Conservation League: Boulder-White Clouds Wilderness Campaign to secure Wilderness protection for 320,000 acres in Idaho’s Boulder-White Clouds Mountains.

9. Friends of Nevada Wilderness: Save Nevada’s Wild Forests Campaign to gain protected status for 1.5 million acres of roadless areas in the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

10. Arizona Wilderness Coalition: Tumacacori Wilderness Campaign to secure permanent protection for the 85,000-acre Tumacacori Highlands Wilderness in Southern Arizona.

11. Transboundary Watershed Alliance: Protecting the Wild Taku Campaign to protect important habitat in the Taku River Watershed in BC and Alaska.

12. Winter Wildlands Alliance: Non-motorized Winter Recreation Advocacy to promote and preserve a quality human-powered snowsports experience on public lands.

13. West Virginia Wilderness Coalition: Monongahela Wilderness Campaign to secure Wilderness protection for up to 140,000 acres in West Virginia.