Dear TCA Supporters,
Our team has been hard at work! So far this year, we have granted $700,000 to 18 organizations, and helped to protect over 13 million acres of public land. We’ve recruited 26 like-minded businesses, and more than 100 businesses have signed on to our Mobilizing for Monuments pledge, urging the Biden Administration to expand and designate national monuments using the Antiquities Act.
We’ve picked up in-person events to bring our community together and grow awareness for critical conservation issues. We’ve hosted three Backyard Collectives with members and conservation partners, and started a new event series called Advocate Outdoors to bring TCA members directly to the landscapes we are working to protect. The first event took place at the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California. We also completed a successful D.C. Fly-In with 20 member companies taking over 40 meetings with the administration and lawmakers over three days.
We’ve also seen some great successes! In May, the Biden Administration protected more than 100,000 acres of public land in California with the expansions of Berryessa Snow Mountain and San Gabriel Mountain National Monuments. The work never ends though! We’re now gearing up for the election, and what that may mean for our work protecting wild places.
Thank you for your time, and please read on for more information about what our team has been up to since we last connected.
Joe Craig
Interim Executive Director
The Conservation Alliance
TCA Welcomes a New Pinnacle Member
After nearly 20 years as a member, Osprey Packs became The Conservation Alliance’s newest Pinnacle Member with a $100,000 annual commitment to the organization. Osprey Packs’ incredible contribution is in celebration of its 50th Anniversary, and commitment to conservation. The funds support The Conservation Alliance’s (TCA) grantmaking, corporate advocacy and communications programs, as well as core operational expenses that shift the landscape of conservation.
TCA and its Partners Visit Washington DC in Support of Conservation
Over the course of three days in May, The Conservation Alliance convened with representatives from more than 20 member companies, partner organizations, and grantees in Washington, D.C. for our annual fly-in. Four teams of advocates held over 50 meetings with members of congress and their staff, as well as with administration leaders in the White House, U.S. Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Forest Service. TCA’s priority campaigns were center stage all week. We moved the needle on protecting 28 million acres of D1 Lands in Alaska, freeing the Snake River from dams, supporting the final BLM Public Lands Rule, and designating additional National Monuments in Colorado and California.
Celebrating Recent Wins: BLM Public Lands Rule and Expanded National Monuments in California
A TCA priority campaign, the BLM released its new Public Lands Rule in April, putting conservation and recreation on a level playing field with other uses – including extractive industries – and critical economic benefits. The new rule supports the $1.1 trillion outdoor recreation industry, and recognizes the critical economic benefits local recreation and tourism plays in rural and gateway communities situated near BLM lands and waters.
Secondarily, TCA and the Mobilizing for Monuments campaign, have been working with lawmakers and conservation organizations on the ground for the expansion of San Gabriel and Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monuments in California. In May, the Biden Administration announced it will be expanding the monuments, safeguarding more than 100,000 acres of public lands, and honoring the profound connection various Tribes and communities have to these lands.
Grantee Spotlight: Alabama River Diversity Network
Every year the Conservation Alliance awards four grants to groups led by Asian, Black, Brown, Hispanic, Indigenous, Latin American, or additional communities who identify as People of Color working to protect a natural place. The goal of the Confluence Program is to intentionally connect to historically racially excluded people for the protection of natural places. Alabama River Diversity Network is a growing collaborative that is focused on reclaiming and revitalizing the Alabama River corridor with special attention to the Black Belt area, a landscape brimming with untold stories and ecological wonders. In 2023, TCA awarded ARDN a 2-year Confluence Program grant to support this effort.
In the Field With TCA
This spring was full of exciting events for TCA. We spent time with a number of member companies and grantees helping grow the TCA community, and raise awareness for important conservation issues.
- TCA joined Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project, the Continental Divide Trail Coalition, and other conservation leaders on a transformative trip on the Gila River
- Backyard Collective: TCA staff and member companies joined the John Muir Land Trust for a day of work at the Almond Ranch in northern California – a 281 acre landscape that TCA funding helped secure in 2020
- Advocate Outdoors: TCA explored the proposed Chuckwalla National Monument in southern California with a group of passionate advocates and community leaders from member companies and partner organizations to learn more about the importance of its protection
- Backyard Collective: TCA and 40 participants from member companies joined Ventura Land Trust at Harmon Canyon Preserve to help support the maintenance of an ongoing restoration process
- TCA visited the TCA grantee, Chesapeake Conservancy, and the Rappahannock Tribe to experience the incredible landscape along the Rappahannock River.
