The Global Paddling Community

The Conservation Alliance sent grants totaling $700,000 to 19 organizations working to protect wild places throughout North America. The donations marked the Alliance's second funding disbursal for 2012, and is the largest funding cycle in the group's 23-year history. Maximum grant size is now $50,000, up from $35,000.

With this disbursal, the Alliance has contributed $1.3 million in 2012. Since the organization's founding in 1989, the Alliance has contributed more than $11.2 million. By a vote of the group's member companies, The Conservation Alliance made donations to 19 grassroots conservation organizations as follows:

Adirondack Council, Elizabethtown, NY, $40,000
Alaska Wilderness League, Washington , DC $50,000
American Rivers, Seattle, WA, $35,000
Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Ottawa, ON $45,000
Colorado Environmental Coalition, Denver, CO $40,000
Earthworks, Washington, DC, $30,000
Greater Yellowstone Coalition, Bozeman, MT, $50,000
Los Padres Forest Watch, Santa Barbara, CA, $25,000
Northern Alaska Environmental Center, Fairbanks, AK, $35,000
Oregon Natural Desert Association, Bend, OR, $50,000
Pacific Rivers Council, Portland, OR, $30,000
Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition, Hazelton, BC, $35,000
Smith River Alliance, Crescent City, CA, $30,000
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, Salt Lake City, UT, $50,000
The Wilderness Society Idaho, Boise, ID, $45,000
Tuleyome, Woodland, CA, $30,000
West Coast Environmental Law, Vancouver, BC, $30,000
Wilderness Support Center, Durango, CO, $40,000
Wilderness Workshop, Carbondale, CO, $10,000

TOTAL: $700,000

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

This funding cycle marks the first time The Conservation Alliance has increased the size of individual grants. Maximum grant size is now $50,000, up from $35,000.

"Our grant fund has grown, and we made the strategic decision to increase our grant size rather than support a larger number of organizations," says Sterling. "We've always wanted our contributions to have a meaningful impact on projects, and larger grants will do just that."

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 Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho; acquire wildlands in California and New York; protect wild rivers in Canada, Washington, Montana, and Oregon; and establish vast new protected landscapes in Canada, Alaska, and Montana.

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

"As we near the end of 2012, we celebrate our greatest funding disbursal ever," says Sterling. "We're proud that our funding 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:
Grants

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. Since its inception in 1989, the Alliance has contributed $11.2 million to grassroots conservation groups. Alliance funding has helped save more than 29 million acres of wildlands; protect 2,700 miles of rivers; stop or remove 25 dams; designate five marine reserves; and purchase nine climbing areas.

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