Conservation Alliance Awards $450,000 In Grants To 17 Organizations

The Conservation Alliance sent checks totaling $450,000 to 17 organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The donations marked the Alliance’s final funding disbursal for 2008, and brings the year’s total to $900,000. This round brings total giving to $7 million since the organization’s founding in 1989

By a vote of the group’s 160 member companies, The Conservation Alliance made donations to 17 grassroots conservation organizations as follows:


Alaska Wilderness League (Washington, DC)- $35,000
American Rivers (Washington, DC) – $20,000
Appalachian Trail Conservancy (Harpers Ferry, WV) – $25,000
California Wilderness Coalition (Oakland, CA) – $30,000
Central Oregon Landwatch (Bend, OR) – $30,000
Environmental Defense Center (Santa Barbara, CA) – $13,000
Montana Wilderness Association (Helena, MT) – $30,000
Northeast Wilderness Trust (Boston, MA) – $30,000
Oregon Wild (Portland, OR) – $30,000
Rivers Without Borders (Juneau, AK) – $25,000
Southeast Alaska Conservation Council (Juneau, AK) – $30,000
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance (Salt Lake City, UT) – $25,000
The Adirondack Council (Elizabethtown, NY) – $30,000
Utah Rivers Council (Salt Lake City, UT) – $25,000
Wild Fish Conservancy (Duvall, WA) – $12,000
Wilderness Support Center (Durango, CO) – $30,000
Winter Wildlands Alliance (Boise, ID) – $30,000
TOTAL$450,000

“The Conservation Alliance wraps up our largest year of funding by supporting another great collection of conservation projects,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance. “We continue to work collectively to save the wild lands and waterways that are so important to the outdoor industry.”

This round of grant recipients reflects the geographic distribution of Conservation Alliance members. Conservation Alliance funds will support efforts to: secure new wilderness designations in Alaska, Oregon, California, Utah, and Montana; protect wild rivers in Washington, Utah, and Canada; protect private wildlands in Tennessee, New York, Maine, Oregon, and California; and preserve quiet winter recreation opportunities in Oregon, Montana, and Wyoming.

Each project was first nominated for funding by a Conservation Alliance member company.

This is the second and final grant disbursement The Conservation Alliance has made in 2008.

“In challenging economic times, we met our goal of contributing $900,000 in 2008,” said Sterling. “That’s a significant investment in protecting our wild places.”

Please see http://conservationalliance.com/UserFiles/File/S08_grant_announcement.pdf for a complete overview of each grant.


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 $7 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.


Contact:

John Sterling
541-389-2424
john@conservationalliance.com

Kristin Carpenter-Ogden
970-259-3555
kco@verdepr.com