The Conservation Alliance sent grants totaling $800,000 to 23 organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The donations marked the Alliance’s second funding disbursal for 2014, and comprise the largest funding cycle in the group’s 25-year history. The Alliance contributed a record $1.55 million in 2014.
Each project was first nominated for funding by a Conservation Alliance member company. Conservation Alliance funds will support efforts to: secure new wilderness designations in Washington, California, and Oregon; purchase a climbing area in Maine; protect wildlands in Alaska, Canada’s Northwest Territories, Baja, North Carolina, Idaho, Utah, and Montana; protect wild rivers in Washington, California, and Oregon; remove dams in Oregon; halt mining and drilling in Colorado, Minnesota and Oregon; and acquire wildlands in Vermont and Maine.
“We have added 12 new member companies so far this year, and 100-percent of the membership dues are allocated to our central grant fund,” said John Sterling, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance. “Due to the Outdoor Industry’s deep commitment to conservation, we were able to support 23 organizations with grants ranging from $25,000-$50,000.”
By a vote of the group’s member companies, The Conservation Alliance made donations to these 23 grassroots conservation organizations:
Access Fund, Boulder, Colo. $25,000
Adirondack Mountain Club, Albany, N.Y. $30,000
Alaska Wilderness League, Washington, D.C. $42,812
American Rivers, Seattle, Wash. $35,000
American Whitewater, Cullowhee, N.C. $50,000
California Wilderness Coalition, Oakland, Calif. $50,000
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Ottawa, ON $30,000
Conservation Lands Foundation, Durango, Colo. $50,000
Earthjustice, San Francisco, Calif. $50,000
Earthworks, Washington, D.C. $30,000
Grand Canyon Trust, Flagstaff, Ariz. $35,000
Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Bozeman, Mt. $30,000
Kittery Land Trust, Kittery, Me. $30,000
Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Center, Ashland, Ore. $25,000
Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Fairbanks, Ak. $30,000
Oregon Natural Desert Association, Bend, Ore. $42,188
Save the Waves Coalition, Davenport, Calif. $35,000
Thompson Divide Coalition, Carbondale, Colo. $25,000
Trust for Public Land, Montpelier, Vt. $35,000
Tuleyome, Woodland, Calif. $25,000
WaterWatch of Oregon, Portland, Ore. $25,000
WildSouth, Asheville, N.C. $30,000
Winter Wildlands Alliance, Boise, Idaho $40,000
Two out of the 23 organizations received funding from The Conservation Alliance for the first time: Kittery Land Trust and Save the Waves.