The Conservation Alliance represents a coalition of businesses that fund and advocate for the protection of North America’s wild places. Through our work, we consolidate and redistribute power in the form of financial grants and political influence to grassroots environmental organizations working to permanently protect the outdoor spaces we love.
This year, we are investing additional advocacy resources in four priority campaigns – to protect the Boundary Waters in Minnesota, Bristol Bay in Alaska, Castner Range, and the Dolores River in Colorado, in Texas. Each campaign addresses settling competing demands for natural resources, adapting to a changing climate, recognizing the rights of Indigenous communities, and protecting habitat in places that are also valued for human recreation.
We announce our Advocacy Priority Campaigns once a year. In collaboration with our grantees, we work to identify land and water conservation opportunities that are urgent, vital, and need national attention. This year, we are proud to work with members of our inaugural Confluence Program as well as members of our flagship multi-year grant program to secure permanent protection of these threatened natural spaces.
Boundary Waters, Minnesota
The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in northeastern Minnesota is the most visited wilderness area in the United States and is part of a 4.3-million-acre system of parks and wild public lands that stretches across the Canadian border. Each year thousands of people go to the Boundary Waters to camp, fish, paddle, dogsled, hunt, and hike. This healthy Wilderness supports 4,500 direct jobs and a $16 billion economy. The Boundary Waters is also within the 1854 Treaty Area where the Bois Forte, Fond du Lac, and Grand Portage Bands of Chippewa maintain hunting, fishing, and gathering rights. And the region is critical habitat for Canada Lynx, Loons, wolves, moose, and a variety of bats, fish and birds. However, the Boundary Waters is threatened with proposals for sulfide-ore copper mining on neighboring land, which would cause irreversible harm to water quality, wildlife, public health, and the sustainable outdoor recreation-based economy.
On January 26, 2022, the Biden administration announced it had canceled the two mining leases for a proposed sulfide-ore copper mine right next to the Boundary Waters. While this move addressed the immediate mining threat, a permanent protection is still not finalized.
The Conservation Alliance will be joining groups advocating for permanent protection for the Boundary Waters through:
- Finalizing a proposed federal 20-year ban on copper mining in this watershed, and
- Passing permanent protection bills in Congress and the Minnesota legislature.
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Meet The Conservation Alliance’s partners:
Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project has a people-focused mission to ensure that Frontera (border) communities have access to the outdoors—and that our history, values and people are reflected in public lands management. The Conservation Alliance has been a proud supporter of Nuestra Tierra Conservation Project since 2021. The Alliance is also supporting Monumental SHIFT with multi-year funding for two National Monument endorsement campaigns: Avi Kaw Ame, or Spirit Mountain, in Nevada and Castner Range in Texas. Monumental SHIFT Coalition is a collaborative network of racially and ethnically diverse leaders working together to shift the traditional conservation movement to better represent and honor lands and places sacred to its communities.
