Outdoor Related Businesses Invest $950,000 to Protect Wild Places

The Conservation Alliance sent grants totaling $950,000 to organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. Funding will help conservation groups secure new protections for remote wild lands and waters and acquire close-to-home trails and open spaces.

The Conservation Alliance works with 250 member companies to identify important conservation projects that seek to protect wildlife habitat and access to recreation. Each member company contributes annual dues to a central grant fund, and funding is disbursed twice annually to the grassroots groups working to secure these protections.

New Conservation Alliance grantees are collectively working to protect 53 million acres and 125 river miles and acquire one climbing area. Projects funded in this grant cycle are as follows:

 

Organization Project Name  Grant 
Access Fund Thumb Open Space  $30,000
Appalachian Mountain Club Campaign to Preserve Maine’s Intact Forest:  Protecting the Pleasant River Headwaters Forest  $45,000
Audubon Alaska Protect the Arctic Refuge Campaign  $50,000
Cowiche Canyon Conservancy Uplands Capital Campaign  $45,000
CPAWS Manitoba Seal River Watershed Indigenous Protected Area Initiative  $45,000
CPAWS Yukon More than just Gold: Protecting the Dawson Region  $25,000
Friends of Cedar Mesa A Pivotal Year for Bears Ears  $30,000
Friends of Nevada Wilderness Military Expansion Defense Campaign for Desert Refuge / Churchill County  $20,000
Frontera Land Alliance Lost Dog Conservation Easement  $10,000
Grand Canyon Trust Permanently Protecting the Grand Canyon and Surrounding Public Lands from Uranium Mining  $45,000
Greater Yellowstone Coalition Yellowstone Gateway Land Acquisitions – Permanently Protecting the Border of Yellowstone National Park  $50,000
Green Mountain Conservancy Deer Run Nature Preserve Phase 2  $35,000
Idaho Conservation League Protecting the High Divide  $10,000
Klamath Siskiyou Wildlands Expand the Wild Rogue  $40,000
Methow Valley Citizens Council Great Northwest Forest Campaign  $45,000
Montana Wilderness Association Blackfoot Clearwater Stewardship Project  $45,000
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance Greater Chaco Protection Campaign  $45,000
Ohio Environmental Council Black Diamond Backcountry Campaign  $40,000
Oregon Desert Land Trust Connecting Central Oregon’s Backcountry  $45,000
Oregon Natural Desert Association Protecting Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands  $50,000
Park County Environmental Council Protecting the Wild and Working Landscapes of Montana’s Crazy Mountains  $40,000
San Juan Citizens Alliance San Juan Mountains Wilderness  $40,000
Trout Unlimited

 

Sportsmen for the Ruby Mountains Project  $40,000
Whatcom Land Trust

 

Skookum II Conservation Corridor  $45,000
Wilderness Workshop Achieving Permanent Protection for the Thompson Divide  $35,000

Three organizations received Conservation Alliance funding for the first time:  Cowiche Canyon Conservancy, Frontera Land Alliance and Green Mountain Conservancy. The Conservation Alliance has awarded a total of $2,000,000 in grants in 2020—equal to the total funding awarded in 2019.

“We reached our grant-making goal for 2020 by retaining and attracting new member companies,” said Brady Robinson, Executive Director at The Conservation Alliance. “We are hopeful this cash infusion, coupled with our advocacy efforts, will help move some of these important conservation projects across the finish line by the end of the year.”

For a complete overview of each grant, please visit: conservationalliance.com/seasons