The Conservation Alliance Contributes $750,000 in Grants to 20 Organizations

March 25, 2013 - PRLog -- Media Contact:
Julie Evans
Verde PR
julie@verdepr.com
970.259.3555
Bend, Ore., – The Conservation Alliance (http://www.conservationalliance.com/) sent grants totaling $750,000 to 20 organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The donations marked the Alliance’s first funding disbursal for 2013, and comprise the largest funding cycle in the group’s 24-year history. The Alliance plans to contribute $1.5 million this year with a second disbursal in October.

By a vote of the group’s member companies, The Conservation Alliance made donations to 20 grassroots conservation organizations as follows:

Organization
Location
Grant Amount

Access Fund
Boulder, CO
$ 40,000

Adirondack Mountain Club
Lake George, NY
$ 50,000

American River Conservancy
Coloma, CA
$ 35,000

Appalachian Mountain Club
Boston , MA
$ 25,000

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - Yukon
Whitehorse, Yukon
$ 35,000

Chelan-Douglas Land Trust
Wenatchee, WA
$ 35,000

Conservation Resource Alliance
Traverse City, MI
$ 35,000

Friends of the Inyo
Bishop, CA
$ 25,000

International Mountain Bicycling Association
Boulder, CO
$ 45,000

Montana Wilderness Association
Helena, MT
$ 50,000

Oregon Wild
Portland, OR
$ 50,000

Rivers Without Borders
Clinton, WA
$ 35,000

Soda Mountain Wilderness Council
Ashland, OR
$ 25,000

Thompson Divide Coalition
Carbondale, CO
$ 25,000

Trust for Public Land
Montpelier, VT
$ 40,000

Vermont Land Trust
Montpelier, VT
$ 50,000

Western Rivers Conservancy
Portland, OR
$ 35,000

Wilderness Land Trust
Carbondale, CO
$ 35,000

Winter Wildlands Alliance
Boise, ID
$ 40,000

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
Canmore, Alberta
$ 40,000

Total

$750,000

“Thanks to our member companies’ deep commitment to conservation, we continue to grow our funding program,” said Executive Director John Sterling. “This list of grants supports the best land and water conservation opportunities in the U.S. and Canada.”

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 Colorado, Montana, and Oregon; purchase a climbing area in Illinois; acquire wildlands in California, Colorado, Vermont, Maine, and Washington; protect wild rivers in Alaska, Colorado, the Yukon, and British Columbia; and remove dams in Michigan.

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

“Our member companies continue to identify great projects for funding,” said Sterling. “Our program gives our members the ability to contribute real dollars to protecting wild places in their backyards.”

For a complete overview of each grant see:
http://www.conservationalliance.com/UserFiles/File/W13%20Funding%20Cycle/W13GrantAnnouncement.pdf

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 $11.9 million to grassroots conservation groups. Alliance funding has helped save more than 41 million acres of wildlands; protect 2,700 miles of rivers; stop or remove 25 dams; designate five marine reserves; and purchase nine climbing areas.

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