The Conservation Alliance to Host Backyard Collective In Salt Lake Cit

Salt Lake City, Utah (June 21, 2011) — The Conservation Alliance is heading to Utah for their first Backyard Collective in the region. On Thursday, June 23rd, The Conservation Alliance and employees from member companies 3point5, Backcountry.com, Black Diamond, Gregory, Hotwax Media, Patagonia, Petzl, and Treasure Mountain Inn will partner with Save Our Canyons and the Salt Lake Climbers Alliance to host a day of trail restoration at Grandeur Peak Open Space in Salt Lake City.

“It’s great to be teaming up with such notable companies and organizations with the concerted goal of increasing the user experience and lending a hand to the protection of the natural environment of Grandeur Peak Open Space,” said Deanna Lloyd, Conservation Alliance outreach associate. “In our third year of Backyard Collectives, we are continuing to celebrate our common interest in the outdoors and preserving nature’s wild places.”

The Conservation Alliance is a non-profit organization whose members consist of outdoor industry companies that fund conservation organizations working to protect North America’s last wild spaces. The Backyard Collective Program offers on-the-ground opportunities for outdoor industry employees to directly affect the areas that these organizations are fighting to protect. Each participating member company provides sponsorship dollars to cover the cost of the Backyard Collective event and encourages employees to volunteer time to clean up and restore trails in their “backyard.”

The Salt Lake City Backyard Collective is schedule for June 23rd from 1 p.m. – 5 p.m. The event will feature a volunteer fair at which Conservation Alliance grantees and local environmental organizations will share information on their current conservation initiatives and present additional ways for participants to help their community. After the event, volunteers are invited to attend Black Diamond’s annual fundraiser for the Salt Lake City Climbers Alliance.

The Salt Lake Climbers Alliance strives to alleviate potential access conflicts and works to promote climbing opportunities, preserve local access and encourage stewardship of the environment.

Save Our Canyons strives to educate the public and further the goals of protecting the natural environments around Salt Lake City through active involvement and by helping build awareness around the issues the Wasatch Range and surrounding areas face.

For more information about this event please contact coordinator, Deanna Lloyd at Deanna@conservationalliance.com or 530.344.0100 or 530.919.4534

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 $9.3 million to grassroots environmental groups. Alliance funding has helped save over 50.5 million acres of wildlands; 28 dams have either been stopped or removed; and the group helped preserve access to more than 18,500 miles of waterways and several climbing areas.

For complete information on the Conservation Alliance, see www.conservationalliance.com.