The Conservation Alliance Grants $110,000 to Defend Public Lands

June 27, 2017

Grants will help preserve and defend the integrity of America’s public lands system.

BEND, Ore. (June 27, 2017) – The Conservation Alliance awarded nine emergency grants to organizations working to defend public lands. The grants, totaling $110,000, come from the organization’s new Public Lands Defense Fund, created to preserve and defend the integrity of America’s public lands system.

The Conservation Alliance has awarded a total of $145,000 in grants from this fund in 2017 and plans to disburse at least $185,000 before the end of the year.

The Conservation Alliance established the Public Lands Defense Fund in January 2017 with contributions from Patagonia, The North Face, Arc’teryx, GU Energy Labs and Ibex Outdoor Clothing. With the contributions from these four companies, The Conservation Alliance board of directors awarded the following grants from its Public Lands Defense Fund:

Seven organizations received funding to respond to President Trump’s executive order directing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to review all national monument designations larger than 100,000 acres from the past 21 years. Since 1999, The Conservation Alliance has awarded 25 grants totaling $765,000, to 13 conservation organizations whose work was instrumental in protecting 10 of the 27 national monuments under review.

Every organization that received funding for national monument defense is a former grantee of The Conservation Alliance. These organizations used Conservation Alliance funding to help designate the national monuments and now will use Alliance funding to defend them.

“We opposes any effort to change the boundaries of existing national monuments through executive action. These monuments protect landscapes with important recreation, cultural, and habitat values,” said John Sterling, executive director of The Conservation Alliance. “We invested in the designation of these monuments, and we are proud to be in a position to fund the groups working to defend them.”

In addition to national monument defense, The Conservation Alliance awarded grants to Outdoor Alliance for its effort to oppose the transfer of federal lands to states and public lands to private ownership, and Earthworks for its effort to defend the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).

About The Conservation Alliance:
The Conservation Alliance is an organization of like-minded 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 all companies who care about protecting our most threatened wild places for habitat and outdoor recreation.  Since its inception in 1989, The Conservation Alliance has contributed more than $18 million, awarded 552 grants, helped to protect more than 50 million acres of wildlands; protect 2,991 miles of rivers; stop or remove 29 dams; designate five marine reserves; and purchase 12 climbing areas. For complete information on The Conservation Alliance, see: www.conservationalliance.com.