The Conservation Alliance harnesses the power of businesses from a wide range of industries to protect outdoor spaces and wild places. We drive a proactive agenda to protect nature utilizing strategic advocacy and grantmaking, leveraging business influence, and building deep partnerships with grassroots organizations and local communities to collectively deliver high impact conservation outcomes, protecting North America’s outdoor places and wild spaces for everyone. Since 1989, we’ve helped protect over 124 million acres and 4,964 river miles, remove or halt 43 dams, purchase 22 climbing areas, and designate five marine reserves and one national marine sanctuary.
In 2025 and 2026, we are investing additional advocacy resources in six priority campaigns. We have chosen these campaigns utilizing a variety of lenses, including where our member base is strong, how much we have previously invested in these campaigns, and the likelihood that our business voice can successfully move the needle and help our on-the-ground partners meet their goals. Many of these priority campaigns may also have a bipartisan opportunity to retain or gain protections. 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.
Protecting the Owyhee Canyonlands
What’s at stake?
Oregon’s Owyhee Canyonlands cover over 4.5 million acres of remote public lands, rich in biodiversity and critical habitat for over 200 species. The region offers generous opportunities for hunting, fishing, and other recreational activities. Unfortunately, the region is threatened by fires, invasive species, increasing development and unmanaged increased recreational visitation impacting the wellbeing of the landscape. The landscape houses a variety of habitat and supports multiple recreation uses, driving the region’s local economy.
What’s the solution?
There have been many efforts to permanently protect the region via different tools, including legislation and the Antiquities Act. In the past, Oregon’s congressional leadership have pushed forward legislation to protect a large swathe of the region. As recently as December 2024, the Senate passed the Malheur Community Empowerment for the Owyhee Act (Malheur CEO Act), which would have designated over one million acres as federally protected wilderness and provided economic development support for the area. This bill came together following months of consultation led by Senator Wyden as he brought together ranchers, sportsmen and women, tribal nations, conservationists, county representatives, business leaders, and others to discuss how to improve the ecological and economic health of Malheur County.
Notably, there is now an opportunity to work across the aisle to protect the Owyhee Canyonlands. Representative Cliff Bentz (R-OR-2nd) has expressed dissatisfaction with the Malheur Act and efforts to designate a national monument in the region, but has also signaled a willingness to find common ground and find a legislative solution for protections that honors local voices and uses. The long-term goal is to find a middle ground between the Malheur CEO Act and a potential proposal from Representative Bentz’s office in 2025 and beyond.
Following the lead of a diverse coalition, TCA will work with our members and grantees to help champion bipartisan, locally-driven legislative solutions to permanently protect the Owyhee Canyonlands. By elevating the voices of our Oregon business members, and amplifying the work of the coalition through TCA’s national channels, TCA will highlight the recreational and economic importance of this region, which drives the state’s $8.4 billion outdoor recreation economy.
Who is The Conservation Alliance’s partner?
The Conservation Alliance is supporting the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership (TRCP) on the campaign to protect the Owyhee.