| Domestic
Biodiversity |
| |
| Alaska
Wilderness League |
Contact Them
Washington, DC |
| The Alaska Wilderness League received $20,000
to develop and implement a multi-year, place-based campaign for permanent,
legislated protections of high value lands in the Tongass National Forest.
AWL will provide leadership for a coalition of groups invested in the campaign
including SEACC, Sitka Conservation Society, and the Alaskan Rainforest
Network. (The AWL has a good record of coordinating campaigns, most recently
in the spring of 2007, when a League-directed coalition successfully pushed
through the House a bill to substantially reduce government subsidies for
the timber industry in the Tongass National Forest.) |
|
| American
Prairie Foundation |
Contact Them
Bozeman, MT
|
| The American Prairie
Foundation received $20,000 to acquire lands that will become part of the
American Prairie Reserve, a 3 million acre prairie-based wildlife reserve
in the Northern Plains. The American Prairie Reserve area of has been designated
as one of the highest priority sites in North America for grassland biodiversity
conservation; the area has a high percentage of untilled native prairie
grassland and provides critical habitat for bison, black tailed, prairie
dogs, sage grouse, and mountain plover. Already in place are roughly 2 million
public acres, which consist of fragmented islands disconnected by space
and by different management mandates. APF’s cardinal goal is to purchase
the 600,000 to 800,000 acres of private ranchlands in between these islands
of public land. The private lands are expected to provide the glue and connections
to public lands that will make this massive wildlife reserve possible. |
|
| American
Rivers |
Contact Them
Washington, DC
|
| American Rivers
received $20,000 to provide legal and scientific expertise in negotiations
with Pacificorps to restore the Klamath River Basin. Over the past 18 months,
American Rivers has played a key role in bringing together 26 key stakeholders
in the Klamath River Basin to create the Klamath River Basin Restoration
Agreement (Basin Agreement), released for public review on January 15th,
that will resolve disputes related to irrigation diversions, tribal and
agricultural water rights, salmon reintroduction, and wetland restoration.
However, the Basin Agreement cannot go into effect until stakeholders reach
an agreement with PacifiCorp on the fate for their four Klamath River dams.
In the coming year, American Rivers will be a leader in ensuring that agreements
include key provisions for fishery restoration and educating local citizens
to gain public support for dam removal. Finally, with staff in Washington,
D.C., AR will educate legislators on the importance of passing legislation
and approving funding for the Basin Agreement. |
|
| American
Wildlands |
Contact Them
Bozeman, Montana |
| American Wildlands received $20,000 for
the Corridors of Life program, which focuses on habitat and wildlife population
connectivity in the High Divide Region, of primarily eastern and central
Idaho, with the important goal of maintaining and restoring linkages between
the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and the larger U.S. Rockies. The High
Divide area is gaining increased focus as a critical landscape, both for
its unique ecological values, and because of its role as a major wildlife
corridor. Currently, AW is completing a Priority Linkage Assessment to determine
the threats to, and opportunities for, ensuring continued and enhanced habitat
connectivity in this area. The bulk of this assessment has involved AW interviewing
twenty-one conservation biology experts, from federal and state agencies,
universities, and NGOs. In the coming year AW will engage existing local
organizations to pursue thirty-one identified high priority linkages. AW
will also work with partners Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative
and Wildlife Conservation Society (Weeden grantees) to further develop a
comprehensive conservation plan that is to serve as a blueprint for maintaining
ecological connectivity across the High Divide area. |
|
| Center
for Biological Diversity |
Contact Them
Tucson, AZ
|
| The Center for
Biological Diversity received $20,000 to remove and prohibit ORVs from significant
acreage of public lands, while building support among the public, environmental
groups, recreationists , and decision makers to limit ORV use to a subset
of designated roads. The Center will use media outreach, education, advocacy,
and strategic litigation to create the momentum for a broader policy shift
at the national and state lands management level. This campaign will: prioritize
wildlife concerns and habitat protections; designate roadless lands as closed
to ORVs; develop and implement stronger enforcement plans for ORVs; significantly
decrease route densities; and preserve quieter recreation in designated
wilderness. Outreach and media activities include: publishing and distributing
the Thrillcraft book (in early 2008 to heighten public awareness of ORV
damage, abuse and violence; hiring a communications expert to heighten media
coverage of ORV issues both locally and nationwide; and creating a “myths
and realities” reference guide for activists to bolster advocacy efforts. |
|
| Endangered
Species Coalition |
Contact Them
Washington, DC |
| The Endangered Species Coalition received
$15,000 in general support for grassroots campaigns that challenge the Bush
Administration’s ongoing threats to the Endangered Species Act. A
leaked draft of recently proposed regulation changes depicts the many ways
the Department of Interior is looking to weaken endangered species regulations.
Furthermore, the Solicitor General has issued a new legal opinion that would
greatly limit the species that could be protected under the ESA. On another
front, the recent Bush Administration budget eliminates important landowner
incentives programs for property owners who want to protect wildlife, and
continues to provide inadequate funding to effectively implement the ESA.
Specifically, Weeden funds will support grassroots outreach, educational
and advocacy activities aimed at mobilizing ESC’s activists and member
groups to act against federal government actions that would compromise ESA
protections. |
|
| Forest
Guardians |
Contact Them
Santa Fe, New Mexico
|
| Forest Guardians
received $20,000 for the West-wide grazing database, in order to support
the national campaign to reform outdated public lands grazing polices, and
to retire grazing rights where important. FG’s user-friendly website
will offer: interactive GIS maps and query-able databases of all grazing
allotments and permittees on public lands; b) a demographic profile of all
public lands ranchers who control grazing allotments in “conservation-important
landscapes”; and c) a spatial and informational database about public
lands and their ecological values to identify where the greatest conflicts
between livestock grazing and biodiversity exist. The data base is expected
to be primarily used by activist groups, including FG itself to prioritize
campaign areas, and to inform potential and ongoing grazing litigation.
|
|
| Georgetown
Environmental Law & Policy Center |
Contact
Them
Washington, DC |
| GELPI received $20,000 for its research
and education work relating to regulatory “takings” challenges
to public programs protecting endangered wildlife in the Pacific Northwest
and the western U.S. Serving as legal counsel on behalf of various conservation
groups, GELPI will assist in the preparation and presentation of legal and
policy arguments in defense of species conservation programs. Specifically,
GELPI plans to intervene, and/or file amicus briefs, in various cases over
the next year with the ultimate goal of defeating the efforts of water users
to obtain a strong legal precedent holding that restrictions on water use
constitute takings or breaches of contract entitling them to hundreds of
millions of dollars in “compensation” from U.S. taxpayers. GELPI
continues to represent NRDC in the long running Klamath controversy in which
water users in the basin have claimed a “taking” and breach
of contract based on the temporary cut-off of water deliveries by the Bureau
of Reclamation in 2001 to protect fish species during a draught.
|
|
| Institute
for Fisheries Resources |
Contact Them
San Francisco, CA |
| The Institute for Fisheries
Resources received $15,000 continued support to work towards its goals of:
(1) securing adequate in-river flows for the Klamath River to support and
eventually restore the once-abundant salmon fisheries of the basin; and
(2) improving water quality and restoring fish passage to some 500 miles
of once-productive salmon spawning and rearing habitat by decommissioning
and removing the four small hydropower dams of the Klamath Hydroelectric
Project. The IFR and the Klamath Coalition will also work through litigation
and grassroots organizing to: (1) maintain existing major water reforms
- currently supported by a court injunction, but only until 2008 - to put
sufficient water back in the Klamath River to restore economically valuable
salmon fisheries; (2) ensure those water reforms are more permanent by releasing
a long-term Biological Opinion, and; (3) reform water rules to bring water
demand back into line with actual water supply, so that water demand can
once again be sustainably met without sacrificing fish and wildlife needs.
|
|
| Klamath
Riverkeeper |
 Contact
Them
Orleans, CA
|
| The Klamath Riverkeeper received $20,000
for two campaigns to protect and restore the Klamath River. “Bring
the Salmon Home” aims to remove four of the six Klamath dams, which
deny access to over 350 miles of spawning habitat upstreamRecent campaign
activities include: 1) filing two petitions to the Regional and State Water
Boards to control PacifiCorp’s Dam pollution; 2) spearheading efforts
to get toxic algae listed as a pollutant and PacifiCorp as a polluter; 3)
helping to monitor for reservoir and toxic algae pollution; 4) organizing
media and public outreach events for dam removal. For “Save the Klamath
Salmon and Steelhead,” KR has been tracking and challenging actions
affecting endangered Coho Salmon within the Scott and Shasta Rivers and
main-stem Klamath River. These actions include: 1) challenging watershed
wide take permits for endangered Coho Salmon; 2) challenging lack of fish
passage at the Dwinnell reservoir on the Shasta River and Iron Gate reservoir
on the Klamath; 3) investigating illegal water withdraws and unscreened
diversions on the Scott and Shasta Rivers, along with the upper basin tributaries,
and; 4) working with to KS Wild to mitigate threats to water quality from
road run off by documenting sediment discharges and petitioning to get the
Lower Klamath listed as impaired for sediment. |
|
| Klamath
Siskiyou Wildlands Center |
Contact
Them
Ashland, Oregon |
| KS Wild received $20,000 to preserve wilderness-quality
lands, old-growth forests, and riparian habitat across more than five million
acres of public land in northwest California and southwest Oregon. As the
Bush Administration ends its tenure, the Program is largely focused on challenging
Administration legal threats to the Northwest Forest Plan, particularly
the Spotted Owl Recovery Plan, its intention to cancel the “Survey
and Manage’ provisions within the Endangered Species Act, and the
BLM’s Western Oregon Plan Revisions that would open up old-growth
and roadless forests to commercial logging. KS Wild’s conservation
strategy is three-fold: 1) Public Lands Monitoring defends roadless areas
and old-growth forests from damaging timber sales, off-road vehicle abuse,
and excessive cattle grazing and road-building projects through project
tracking, comments, field monitoring, and strategic appeals and litigation;
2) Issue-oriented campaigning advocates for the protection of intact roadless
areas, protection of threatened and endangered species, additional wilderness
designation, and ecologically-driven redirection of land management activities
through multi-stakeholder collaboration efforts; and, 3) Education &
Outreach involves educating the public, non-traditional allies and elected
officials about the importance of functioning ecosystems, the threats to
these ecosystems, and restorative alternatives to bad management. |
|
| Mountaineer
Books |
Seattle, Montana
|
| Braided River—the new
conservation imprint of The Mountaineers Books—received $10,000 to
complete Beyond the Trees: Treasures of the Tongass, a book project advocating
for permanent protection of the remaining roadless areas of the Tongass.
The book will combine images from conservation photographer Amy Gulick,
and incorporate stories from leading conservation writers and scientists
including Carl Safina, Richard Nelson, John Schoen. Publication is set for
2009 and will be followed by a series of public speaking presentations,
and a nationally touring museum exhibit. As part of their outreach strategy,
Braided River will collaborate with Weeden grantees SEACC, Alaska Wilderness
League, and Trout Unlimited and use the book to galvanize increased public
and policymaker support for further protections in the Tongass. |
|
| Montana
Wilderness Association |
Contact Them
Helena, Montana
|
| The Montana Wilderness Association
received $20,000 for their ongoing efforts to obtain long-term administrative
protection for roadless lands in Montana, until the time wilderness designation
can be achieved. One-half of Weeden funds will support MWA’s “Forest
and Travel Campaign,” which works on solutions with opposing constituencies,
builds alliances, and mobilizes citizen involvement in the administrative
planning processes. This Campaign will focus on travel plan revisions for
the Gallatin, Helena, Lewis and Clark, and Custer Forests, and forest plan
revisions in the Kootenai Forest and Lolo/Bitterroot/Flathead Forests (combined
effort). The remaining half of Weeden funds will be used to influence the
Forest Service and public opinion in support of adopting the Beaverhead-Deerlodge
Partnership Agreement into the area’s Forest Management Plan Revision.
|
|
| National
Center for Conservation Science and Policy |
Ashland, OR
|
| The National Center for Conservation
Science and Policy received $20,000 for dual efforts to defend critical
habitat in the Pacific Northwest from administrative attempts to rollback
protections in the Northwest Forest Plan; and to collaborate with the World
Temperate Rainforest Network to publish the first global atlas on Temperate
Rainforests of the World. The Center will: organize a panel of top scientists
to peer review the anticipated spotted owl recovery plan which, prior to
its release, is already known to lack adequate protections for old growth
forests; use the scientific peer review to support legal challenges filed
by conservation partners (Western Environmental Law Center, Earth Justice);
challenge the inadequate owl recovery plan by highlighting the manipulation
of science and distortion of the Endangered Species Act; and provide scientific
counsel to conservation organizations leading other legislative protective
efforts. With the remaining funds the Center will provide conservation science
in support of an atlas designed to call attention to the international importance
of temperate forest protection. |
|
| Natural
Capital Institute |
Contact Them
Sausalito, CA |
| The Natural Capital Institute received $10,000
for the WiserEarth Project, an online database to connect the myriad of
individuals and organizations dedicated to social justice and environmental
restoration. Founded by environmentalist and author Paul Hawken, NCIs mission
is to describe pathways of change in books and research reports, and create
tools for connecting the individuals, information, and organizations that
create change. NCI believes that the millions of individuals around the
world actively working toward ecological sustainability and human justice
are undermined by the lack of collective awareness, efforts that are duplicative,
and poor connectivity. WiserEarth is community written, free content, open
source networking platform that includes blogs, job postings, and an unprecedented
search engine to connect organizations, issues and needs. One feature under
development is WiserEarth Groups, a way for Foundations and grantees working
on similar issues to share resources and create discussion forums to heighten
the efficiency and visibility of advocacy work. NCI’s priorities in
the coming year include: educating NGOs, foundations and donors, and students
and academic organizations about the benefits of using and creating links
to WiserEarth; securing partnerships with media and global environmental
and social justice groups; and completing and releasing the WiserEarth Platform
technology to the open source community. |
|
| Northcoast
Environmental Center |
Contact Them
Arcata, CA |
| The Northcoast Environmental Center received
$20,000 to conduct an Instream Flow Review Project to ensure adequate water
flows for Chinook salmon and other native fish prior to dam removal on the
Klamath River. More than 350 miles of former spawning beds, now inaccessible
to salmon, lie upstream of four dams that are currently the focus of a “relicensing”
process between the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the dam owners,
PacifiCorp of Portland, Oregon. Simultaneously, twenty-six independent stakeholders
are negotiating with each other over a variety of issues including water
allocations, habitat restoration, and funding. As a stakeholder, NEC will
contract with some of the West’s top in-stream flow analysts and fisheries
biologists to conduct a scientific peer review of in-stream flow analysis
contained in the Klamath Dam Settlement Framework. The output of this scientific
review will provide Settlement Parties with an independent analysis of the
strengths and weaknesses of the models, assumptions, and settlement flows
all in one document -- facilitating a decision-making process and allowing
parties to inform their constituencies of the pros/cons of the Settlement
Agreement. |
|
| Pacific
Forest Trust |
Contact Them
San Francisco, California |
| The Pacific Forest Trust (PFT) received
$20,000 for the “Cascade Siskiyou National Monument Forestlands Initiative.”
Support from the Weeden Foundation over the past two years enabled PFT to
acquire 4,750 acres within the Monument planning area. With the initial
acquisitions now complete, PFT is working closely with the BLM –through
education and constituency building- to ensure the acquired lands are successfully
added to the 53,000 acres already in public ownership. When transferred
to the BLM, these lands will increase the protected base of the Monument
by more than 20 percent. To build the constituency needed to influence key
BLM staff members and members of Congress, PFT will engage in: 1) leading
tours of the property for key BLM staff, local politicians, and community
members; 2) disseminating updated publications and other education materials,
highlighting urgent threats and other conservation opportunities on private
land within the planning area, and; 3) creating and deepening partnerships
with organizations such as Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, the Wilderness
Society, and Trout Unlimited (all Weeden grantees). Weeden support will
also help defray the holding and management costs PFT currently incurs on
the 4,750 acres; this work includes forest and alpine meadow restoration
activities. |
|
| Private
Reserves Network |
Contact
Them
Carmel, California
|
| Developing Communities Inc received $20,000
for the Private Reserves Network (PRN), a non-profit organization focused
on expanding and promoting private conservation by uniting all private conservationists
into a network of private reserves. Private landowners are leading conservation
efforts worldwide. While the three major international conservation organizations,
The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, and Conservation International,
are working with private landowners to improve conservation, a network between
these groups is almost non-existent. PRN will focus initially on Latin America
as it contains five of the top ten most biologically diverse nations in
the world, and 80 percent of its land is privately held. Project activities
include: 1) establishing the Private Reserves Network as an IRS 501(c)(3)
not-for-profit organization and increase network membership; 2) developing
a website to strengthen income generating opportunities for private protected
areas interested in eco-tourism benefits, and; 3) creating an evaluation
criterion for private protected areas: This will be accomplished through
stakeholder participation from private conservation landowners, international
NGOs, academics, and tourism operators. |
|
| PEW
Charitable Trusts |
Contact
Them
Washington, DC
|
| Pew Charitable Trust (which absorbed the
National Environmental Trust (NET) in 2007), received support for the Global
Species Rescue Fund campaign. The GSRF’s goal is to get the US and
European governments to establish a fund capable of financing a network
of protected areas. Experts say the world needs to spend $5-$7 billion more
per year (above the current $1 billion) in the most biologically diverse
countries to accomplish meaningful conservation. In 2008, the campaign will
continue to develop partnerships with constituencies both in and outside
of the environmental community, and intensify outreach to policy makers
and international leaders who could advance the fund. Simultaneously, efforts
will focus on publicly framing and “selling” the new biodiversity
fund to policy makers and the public via an internet based video site and
by publishing a number of Op-Ed pieces from biodiversity experts on the
global extinction crisis. |
|
| Resources
First Foundation |
Contact Them
Yarmouth, ME |
| The Resources First Foundation
(RFF) received $15,000 for their web-based "Private Landowner Network"
(PLN), a national database of conservation resources for private landowners
and their legal service professionals. As an alternative to selling land
for development, PLN provides a simple and effective means for landowners
to connect with qualified, often local professionals to navigate the complex
ins and outs of real estate transactions, tax and estate planning, and regional
land conservation activities. Weeden funding will allow RFF to further develop
thematic layered mapping tools to help landowners estimate the value of
their property, build a new set of state nodes so users can receive information
specific to their state, and amplify the legal and financial service provider
data sets for the Conservation Tax Center with special focus on resources
from the Pacific Northwest. |
|
| Resource
Media |
Contact
Them
Seattle, Washington
|
| Resource received $15,000 to develop and
execute a media outreach campaign to build in-state and national support
to stop logging and enhance protections of the Tongass National Forest.
A key Forest Service decision point in the Tongass planning process is expected
to come in the fall of 2007, when Congress will also decide whether to continue
to subsidize logging in the Tongass with taxpayer dollars and whether to
adopt expanded protections for key parts of the forest. RM will coordinate
a communications strategy with partners such as Weeden grantees, the Sitka
Conservation Society, SEACC, and the Alaska Wilderness League to build wide
support for the both legal and legislative remedies that are likely to arise
with the outcomes of these decisions. |
|
| Sitka
Conservation Society |
Contact Them
Sitka, Alaska |
| The Sitka Conservation Society (SCS) was
awarded $20,000 for field based research, legal and policy action, and community
outreach work to protect the Tongass National Forest. SCS continues to provide
vital information and support for the Alaska Rainforest Campaign’s
attempts to build a new management paradigm on the Tongass that is not reliant
on industrial clearcutting, particularly within roadless or old-growth forest
areas. To this end, SCS will provide the ARC with agency monitoring reports,
track all timber sales in the Tongass using GIS mapping, and build community
presence at Forest Service Plan hearings and other public meetings. Other
goals for this year include: working with the Forest Service to develop
second growth programs in conjunction with restoration to replace old growth
logging and create jobs; regain roadless rule protections through pending
litigation; comment on nearly every project that requires NEPA process;
and building community support to challenge any necessary parts of the Forest
Service’s Forest Plan when it is released later this year. |
|
| Soda Mountain Wilderness
Council |
Contact Them
Ashland, OR |
| The Soda Mountain Wilderness
Council received $20,000 to protect the still threatened Cascade-Siskiyou
National Monument (CSNM) area. A major focus of SMWC’s work this past
year was the attempted passage of the Monument’s Buyout/Wilderness
Bill to designate 23,000 acres of the monument’s backcountry as wilderness,
and to provide for the voluntary buyout of public lands livestock grazing
leases in and near the Monument. Unfortunately, the bill was introduced
too late in the 109th congress to get any traction. However, the bill’s
sponsors will try again this congressional session. As part of their on-going
strategy, SMWC has been offering the ranchers the “carrot” of
a generous buyout (public funds supplemented by private funds), while employing
the “stick” of publicizing and legally challenging the environmental
damage and economic costs of livestock grazing in the monument. |
|
| Southeast
Alaska Conservation Council |
Contact Them
Juneau, Alaska |
| The Southeast Alaska Conservation Council
(SEACC) received support defend the Tongass Forest and Taku watersheds
from unsustainable logging, mining and development. SEACC is working to
launch a new campaign with AWL, Trout Unlimited, and the Nature Conservancy
to permanently protect over 4.5 million acres of the Tongass. Campaign
activities include: 1) participating in the Tongass Futures Roundtable
to pressure for a shift in the Forest Service’s Tongass budget from
timber towards sustainable businesses including tourism, recreation, fisheries,
and restoration; 2) garnering active support from stakeholders and citizens
through education, media, and outreach; 3) developing community proposals
to establish local buy in/ownership of forest-wide mapping and to increase
and reinforce support for permanent protections, and; 4) working with
non traditional allies including mill operators to build support and neutralize
opposition. |
|
| Watershed
Restoration Coalition |
Contact
Them
Deer Lodge, MT |
| The Watershed Restoration Coalition received
$20,000 for its involvement in the Upper Clark Fork Community Restoration
and Redevelopment Plan, a massive remediation and restoration effort on
roughly 120 miles of the Clark Fork River that have been impacted as a result
of mining and smelting activities over the past century. The EPA identified
15 extensive sites in the basin that together comprise the largest superfund
site in the country. Over the next two decades, more than $200 million will
be spent on this effort. However, the development of high quality restoration
projects, as well as community supported planning efforts, are needed to
dictate where monies should be spent and how projects should be prioritized.
“Well planned” restoration could dramatically improve water
quantity and quality, fish habitat, wildlife, recreation and agriculture.
Partnering with local NGOs, WRC will: educate landowners on the benefits
of restoration of natural resources and teach effective approaches in conservation
that will protect the investment of restoration monies; form a Technical
Advisory Committee to ensure that project prioritization is based on biological
need and implementation potential; and, produce a prioritized list of projects
they would like to see implemented on streams in the valley. |
|
| Western
Environmental Law Center |
Contact
Them
Eugene , Oregon |
| The Western Environmental Law Center (WELC)
received $20,000 to provide legal resources and council to local conservation
groups fighting to uphold bedrock environmental laws and responsible ecosystem
management policies in the Klamath-Siskiyou bioregion. The Klamath-Siskiyou
region is under a myriad of threats: logging, mining, energy development,
grazing, road construction, and attempts to weaken current environmental
regulations. The specific goals of the Klamath Siskiyou Defense Project
are to: (1) preserve the integrity of the Northwest Forest Plan’s
“survey and manage” provisions; (2) challenge the Bush Administration’s
changes to the National Forest Management Act (“NFMA”) implementing
regulations; (3) prevent placer mining in the Siskiyou National Forest;
(4) challenge a Forest Service record of decision to allow construction
of new roads through a roadless area in the Six Rivers National Forest;
and (5) continue to work with local environmental groups to protect this
region from site specific threats as they arise out of regulatory changes,
such as the Bureau of Land Management’s Western Oregon Plan Revision,
the Forest Service’s travel management rules, and the elimination
of Forest Plan Revisions from the environmental review process. |
|
| Western
Lands Project |
Contact Them
Seattle, Washington |
| Western Lands Project (WLP) was awarded
$20,000 to advocate for public lands protection across the West. WLP monitors
federal land exchanges, sales giveaways, and any project that would turn
public land over to logging, development, ranching and mining interests.
WLP provides legal and environmental analysis of exchange proposals; files
administrative appeals and judicial challenges under the National Environmental
Protection Act; monitors for federal legislation compliance; and ensures
that public lands documents are available to the public. WLP’s work
is enhanced by its educational and community outreach initiative that targets
dozens of science museums, over 1,500 colleges and schools, and an interactive
website. Their intent is not to oppose all land trades but to ensure that:
their consequences are disclosed and understood; the trades advance the
public interest by law; and that land exchange alternatives are given serious
thought. WLP’s ongoing focus is to stop the fast tracking of “quid
pro quo” wilderness bills in Congress. These bills incorporate lands
exchanges and giveaways into wilderness bills without public input or environmental
review. |
| |
| Western
Rivers Conservancy |
Contact Them
Portland, Oregon |
| The Western Rivers Conservancy
(WRC) was awarded $20,000 to permanently protect the last privately owned
land along the Winchuk River in the Klamath Siskiyou bioregion of southwestern
Oregon. The Winchuk watershed has the only old growth redwood forest in
Oregon and provides high priority habitat for salmon, steelhead, bald eagle,
spotted owl, and marbled murrelet. WRC is in the process of securing foundation,
individual, and public support to purchase the 43 acre property and to place
it in conservation ownership to prevent the development of home sites in
the riparian corridor. (They purchased the property utilizing internal reserves
and now must replenish this fund for other land purchase opportunities.) |
| International
Biodiversity |
|
| Altai
Assistance Project |
Contact
Them
Wadhams, New York |
| The Altai Assistance Project received $20,000
to strengthen the system of protected areas and park management in the Altai
and promoting ecotourism and sustainable land use. AAP requests funds for
the following activities: 1) host two field workshops for villages on the
topic “Protected Areas and Local Populations” to explain, and
gather support for establishing the new Sailugemsy Nature Reserve; 2) provide
funding to Argut Nature park to build a yurt visitor center; 3) buy a satellite
telephone for use in wildlife conservation and monitoring expeditions in
remote park areas; 4) send a Fund for Sustainable Altai staff member to
the US for training to become the first “Leave No Trace” certified
instructor in Russia; and, 5) provide transportation and lodging for ten
participants to take a three-month course to obtain certificates/diplomas
as tour guides for environmentally sensible and sustainable tourism. |
|
| Altai
Project (sponsored by: Earth Island Institute) |
Contact Them
San Francisco, CA |
| The Altai Project was granted $20,000 to
assist their local partners to strengthen conservation measures, manage
tourism effectively, and create strategies for permanent protection of sensitive
areas. A major focus in 2008 is to work with the Altai Assistance Project
and partners to establish the Sailugem zapvednik (strict protected area
under federal control). In this effort, AP will provide a small grant to
the Fund for Sustainable Development Altai for education and outreach efforts,
such as publishing brochures and holding seminars. Other activities for
2008-2009 include: providing transportation and equipment to train and develop
anti poaching teams from a variety of Altai agencies; working with Fund
for the 21st Century Altai to bolster grassroots opposition to the gas pipeline
across the Ukok plateau; and, providing financial support for local NGOs
to hold seminars and training sessions in remote parts of the region to
help stop the proposed Altaisky hydroelectric dam. |
|
| Conservacion
Patagonica |
Contact
Them
Sausalito, California |
| Conservacion Patagonica preserves intact
ecosystems by buying and protecting privately owned wildlands, and ultimately
returning them to the public domain for permanent protection as national
parks or reserves. In 2004, CP purchased Estancia Chacabuco in Chile’s
far south, which together with two established nature reserves will form
the future Patagonia National Park. Collectively, these areas contain the
highest known level of terrestrial diversity in the entire Aysen province
of Chile, providing critical habitat needed to rewild the region's ecosystem.
CP received $20,000 for restoration activities such as fence removal and
tree planting, and the implementation of a species protection program, including
property-wide monitoring of keystone species such as the Huemul deer, the
Puma, and the Condor. The creation of this new national park will ensure
Chile’s highest conservation protection for an area close to the size
of Yosemite Park. It is expected that this effort will help to stimulate
a shift in the local economy from a failing, and damaging pastoral agriculture
towards a more promising and benign economy largely based on eco-tourism. |
|
| Ecosistemas |
Contact
Them
Santiago, Chile |
| Ecosistemas received $30,000
for their Live Patagonia Rivers Campaign to challenge Endesa’s proposed
mega-dam construction projects on Patagonia’s Puelo, Pascua and Baker
Rivers. Ecosistemas’ key role in the overall campaign is to educate
the public and decision makers, through various media, about the projects’
adverse economic and environmental impacts. Ecosistemas will continue to
publish bi-weekly bulletins, maintain a comprehensive and up-to-date website,
send bulletins to over 2000 activists on their listserv, hold workshops
at college campuses and other venues, and coordinate public demonstrations.
Ecosistemas is also coordinating the campaign’s legal strategies by
holding periodic meetings for the campaign’s various lawyers and assisting
in the development of strategic options. Finally, Ecosistemas is serving
as the coordinating body for collaboration between international partners,
NRDC, International Rivers, E-Law, and Forest Ethics and Chilean NGOs. |
|
| ELAW |
Contact Them
Eugene, Oregon |
| The Environmental Law Alliance Worldwide
(ELAW) received $20,000 for their activities supporting Chilean organizations
(including Weeden grantees FIMA, Ecosistemas and Chile Sustenable) working
to protect the forests and wild rivers of Chilean Patagonia by challenging
hydroelectric project proposals. ELAW’s activities for next year include:
connecting Chilean lawyers so they can communicate and work together, and
helping them collaborate with other ELAW lawyers from Latin America and
around the world who have successfully opposed big dams; providing support
to the lawyers as they work to ensure that the likely impacts of constructing
transmission lines are considered together with the likely impacts from
the dams themselves; and collaborating with Chilean lawyers to design laws
that will encourage the development of truly renewable energy sources rather
than construction of big dams. |
|
| ForestEthics |
Contact Them
San Francisco, CA |
| Forest Ethics received $30,000 for
Chile’s Native Forests Campaign. FE’s ongoing markets-based
campaign focuses on the following: securing commitments from companies to
sustainably manage native forests; maximizing FSC certification in Chile;
pressuring the Chilean government to enact new conservation legislation
for the nearly 30 million acres of forest that are still at risk; and, using
corporate influence to create new privately protected areas. In the coming
year, FE will help to develop and disseminate Chile’s first-ever comprehensive
native forest conservation model. This will enable Forest Ethics and others
to identify and work towards protecting Chile’s key Endangered Forests,
with immediate priority given to the most critically Endangered Forests
of the Nahuelbuta region. Simultaneously, they will focus efforts to persuade
the Chilean government to adopt new national legislation prohibiting the
conversion of any native forests to tree plantations; strengthen Chile’s
native forest protection agency; and provide sufficient funding for restoration
of severely degraded native forests. |
|
| International
Rivers |
Contact Them
Berkeley, California |
| International Rivers received $20,000 for
their Patagonia Campaign to stop Endesa Chile’s plans to construct
major hydroelectric dams on the Baker, Pascua, and Puelo Rivers. IR will
play a lead role in developing a corporate/markets campaign targeted at
key investors in the project. IRN’s work will focus on: identifying
key companies and their owners and documenting their financial, political,
social and corporate interests and potential leverage points; strengthening
key relationships with allies in Chile, Canada, and Europe; heightening
international media interest by bringing foreign reporters based in Santiago,
and reporters working in markets relevant to participating companies to
Patagonia for an “investigative tour”; and, creating a traveling
multimedia exhibition that will portray the conservation value of Patagonia
and the impacts of the proposed dams. |
|
| Island
Conservation & Ecology Group |
Contact Them
Santa Cruz, California |
| Island Conservation (IC) received $20,000
for their newly developed program to protect and restore biodiversity in
the Caribbean. IC’s model systematically protects threatened island
habitat by removing invasive animals, establishing island protected areas,
and facilitating long-term management of island ecosystems. IC’s major
activities in the coming year are as follows: 1) facilitating the removal
of invasive goats, macaques, and rodents from Desecho Island, Puerto Rico
through demonstration projects and on-site training of local practitioners;
2) prioritizing all of the islands for eradication potential and the threat
of rising sea level due to climate change; 3) conducting a trial mongoose
eradication on the Goat Islands, off the coast of Kingston, Jamaica, with
the dual goals of reestablishing a Jamaican iguana population and developing
successful mongoose eradication techniques that can be transferred to other
threatened islands; and 4) developing an Island Conservation NGO similar
to the highly successful Mexican sister NGO. |
|
| Nature
Conservancy (Chile) |
 Contact
Them
Santiago, Chile
|
| The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
was awarded $25,000 for the Private Lands Initiative in Chile. Their two
part strategy includes: 1) introducing legislation to add contributions
to the environment to the list of areas that entitle donors to charitable
deductions; 2) amending Chile’s Civil Code to make conservation easements
more practical and reliable including the creation of easements in gross,
meaning that a private landowner can donate or sell a conservation easement
to an NGO or government agency rather than only to an adjacent landowner.
Half of the grant will support the creation of these two pieces of legislation;
the other half will support a training visit to the United States by the
Initiative’s Private Lands Working group, which will include meetings
with land trust staff and trustees in Boston, visits to properties protected
by conservation easements, and participation in a symposium hosted by the
Cyrus Vance Center in New York City. |
|
| Pacific
Environment |
Contact Them
San Francisco, California |
| Pacific Environment received
$20,000 for their efforts to protect the Altai from destructive mega-projects.
The most immediate project threatening the region is the proposed Altai
Natural Gas Pipeline and road across the Ukok Plateau. PE will provide support
to the Foundation for Sustainable Development of the Altai to conduct public
hearings and educate local citizens and Altai government officials about
the risks and impacts of the pipeline. Pacific Environment partners will
conduct a public environmental impact assessment of the project and create
maps of affected sacred sites on the Ukok Plateau, which will be used promote
greater protective status for the Ukok area. |
|
| Sacred
Lands Film Project (sponsored by:Earth Island Institute |
Contact
Them
San Francisco, California |
| The Sacred Lands Film Project
received $15,000 to complete a half hour segment of their film Losing Sacred
Ground on the Altai people’s fight to protect their homelands and
preserve their traditional culture. Losing Sacred Ground, a four part documentary
series, portrays 12 contested landscapes and examines traditional land management
practices, the relationship between biological diversity and the community,
religious oppression, and corporate responsibility for the environment.
The Altai segment will cover the recent creation of several Nature Parks,
the proposed gas pipelines and dams, the controversial extraction of the
remains of the Ukok princess on the plateau, the rapid expansion of tourism
in the area, and the protection of sacred sites. The Sacred Lands series
will air on public television in the US and worldwide and is intended to
help indigenous communities legally protect sacred natural sites in perpetuity. |
|
| Santiago
Times |
Contact
Them
Santiago, Chile |
| The Santiago Times/Patagonia
Times, Chile’s only English language newspapers, received $15,000
for journalists who will investigate and report on the proposed dam projects
in southern Chile. Chile’s national media are entirely in the hands
of business interests that will benefit from the hydro projects; little
in the way of critical journalism can be expected. The Santiago/Patagonia
Times will write up to date news stories on project developments and provide
extensive coverage of local citizens impacted by proposed dams. The journalistic
focus will also include regular stories on energy efficiency measures and
energy alternatives, including wind, solar, and thermal. If awarded, funds
will supplement current salaries of two editors and provide travel and expense
money. Current low wages at both newspapers assure regular turnover of editors
to higher paying positions elsewhere in Chile and the U.S. By offering more
competitive wages the current editors will keep their positions and allow
for the kind of sustained, investigate journalism required for careful reporting
of the dam projects and their ramifications. |
|
| World Temperate Rainforest Network |
|
| The World Temperate Rainforest Network (WTRN)
received $20,000 for their dual efforts to: develop market campaigns to
push for endangered forest commitments by timber companies and distributors;
and publish the first book on the temperate rainforests of the world. WTRN
will: advance the Chile Native Forest Campaign by securing agreements that
establish conservation protections in Valdivia and Nahuelbuta regions; work
with Ecosistemas, International Rivers Network and Aysen Reserva de Vida
to stop the Endesa dams; and gain market commitments from Japanese companies
to protect endangered temperate rainforests. The first book on temperate
rainforests of the world will be published mid- 2008. WTRN is planning four
regional conferences to launch the book and focus global attention on regional
campaigns – Chile, Alaska-BC, Australia, and the Pacific Northwest-
and coordinating events to raise awareness about climate change and temperate
rainforests. |
|
| World
Wildlife Fund-Chile |
Contact Them
Valdivia, Chile |
| World Wildlife Fund Chile received
$20,000 for their “Coastal Forest Stewardship Covenant” project
to catalyze, link and formalize private protected areas in the Valdivian
Coastal Range. While over 80% of the forests in the Coastal Range are privately
owned, there is currently no legal framework or incentives to guide and
reward private owners who wish to create private protected areas. The newly
developed Stewardship Covenant provides a mechanism by which private and
public landowners can accountably commit to protection of their lands, while
moving these properties toward permanent protection, until an official legal
framework is available for private protected areas. As members of the Covenant,
owners will pledge to fulfill basic requirements- maintain or improve current
ecological conditions, carry out base line studies, and develop management
plans. Requirements will be monitored by project partners through a structured
monitoring program. |
|
| As
You Sow |
Contact Them
San Francisco, California |
| As You Sow received $15,000
for their “Corporate Social Responsibility Paper Shareholder Advocacy
Initiative” to increase demand for environmental paper in the magazine
industry. AYS’s goals this year are to: pursue shareholder proposal
and high-level dialogue on recycled content paper and environmental fiber
purchasing policy at McGraw Hill; press Time, Business Week, Newsweek, Meredith,
and Reader’s Digest on magazine recovery rate goals and development
of policies to achieve them while pushing for recycled content goals; increase
investor participation in paper recycling dialogues; and secure recycled
content goal from at least one major magazine publisher.
|
|
| Borealis
Centre |
|
| The Borealis Centre for Environment
and Trad e Research is an
investigative research organization. The Center received $15,000 to continue
its development of BeBOLD- the Base for Borealis’ On-Line Data- a
database for recording and displaying product chain of custody and related
company information. Through this database, initiated in 2005, the Borealis
Center has provided NGOs with detailed tracking information on the wood
pulp industry for use by markets campaigns. Their assistance has underpinned
some of the most successful campaigns in recent years, including the Staples,
Victoria’s Secret, Home Depot, and Wal-Mart Campaigns. Borealis member
groups and clients include Weeden grantees Dogwood Alliance, ForestEthics,
and Corporate Ethics International. Over the next year the Centre will implement
a major upgrade to the system, making it more user-friendly, and increasing
the systems capacity to store campaign data. Once complete, the Centre will
launch BeBold to their network as an integral component of numerous forest
market campaigns in North America. |
|
| CAPS |
Contact Them
Santa Barbara, California
|
| Californians for Population
Stabilization (CAPS) received $25,000 for their Overpopulation Awareness
Media Campaign that aims to heighten awareness of the multiple connections
between the state’s population growth and threats to the environment.
With Weeden support in 2007 CAPS ran a three week radio campaign from Los
Angeles to northern Santa Barbara County linking immigration driven population
growth to natural resource damage, sprawl, traffic congestion, and water
shortages. In 2008 CAPS will continue to expand this campaign by airing
radio ads in new areas in California with high growth rates, attendant dislocations
and declining quality of life. CAPS’ goal continues to be to lower
the state’s present population growth rate to a sustainable level.
|
|
| Center
for Immigration Studies |
Contact Them
Washington, DC |
| The Center for Immigration Studies (CIS)
was awarded $25,000 to demonstrate through research and outreach the need
for lower immigration levels in the United States. The Center has helped
shape the understanding of immigration’s impact on population growth,
and ultimately on the environment, through studies such as: “100 Million
More: Projecting the Impact of Immigration on the U.S. Population, 2007
to 2060;” “Outsmarting Smart Growth: Population Growth, Immigration,
and the Problem of Sprawl;”and, “Forsaking Fundamentals: The
Environmental Establishment Abandons U.S. Population Stabilization.”
|
|
| Co-op
America |
 Contact
Them
Washington, DC
|
Co-op America was awarded $20,000 for
the PAPER Project, their effort to shift U.S. magazine paper purchasing
from virgin stock to eco-papers, thereby increasing the overall market
demand for these papers. Co-op continues to educate, assist, and pressure
leading publishers to adopt environmentally sound procurement policies
starting with 30% post consumer content paper (10% for some types of coated
paper), while advocating for the phase-out of all papers derived from
old growth or endangered forests. Co-op has added over 75 magazines to
their Responsible Magazine Network and is currently in promising negotiations
with major publishers including National Geographic, Scientific America,
and AARP. Goals for this year include: working with Wire and Vanity Fair
to encourage Conde Naste to pursue eco papers for all its publications;
working through O: the Oprah Magazine to compel Hearst Publishing to make
the switch; gaining commitments from 5-10 smaller magazines to demonstrate
a growing “groundswell” of support for environmentally responsible
paper within the industry; completing the “Environmental State of
the Magazine Industry Report” to educate magazine executives of
the advantages and accessibility of environmental paper; and launching
the Bookstore Magazine Stand Promotion Campaign to educate consumers and
promote responsible magazines at national bookstore chains. |
|
| E
Magazine |
Contact Them
Westport, Connecticut |
| E Magazine received $20,000 to support a
package of articles that will take a balanced look at population-environment
issues in 2007. E’s package will feature a main story that examines
population growth in all its dimensions, but filters the information through
an environmental lens. The story will use peer-reviewed studies to demonstrate
how climate change, energy, urban sprawl and loss of open space—are
being shaped by an elephant in the room: rapid U.S. population growth, fueled
by historically high immigration. Because of both legal and illegal immigration,
a country that would otherwise be experiencing zero population growth is
likely to reach the 500 million mark by 2050. The piece will show the unlikelihood
of curbing greenhouse gas emissions or reducing foreign oil dependence (even
if per capita consumption is dramatically reduced) unless a stabilizing
of U.S. population is also part of the plan. The piece also will dispassionately
critique our current visa lottery and asylum systems, the family reunification
process (a.k.a. “chain migration”) and the work of the U.S.
Commission on Immigration Reform. |
|
| Ecology
Center |
Contact Them
Berkeley, California |
The Ecology Center received
$20,000 for CatalogChoice.org, a free catalog opt-out service that allows
people to go online, search catalogues by title, and stop all unwanted catalogs
from being delivered to their homes and businesses. Catalogue Choice contacts
businesses on the consumers’ behalf and ensures that no unwanted catalogs
are received. Since its launch in October 2007, membership has exceeded
600,000 and opt-out requests are over 5 million. They project to exceed
1,000,000 registered users, and over 10 million catalogs opt-out requests
by the end of 2008.
|
|
| Environmental
Paper Network |
Contact
Them
Asheville, NC |
| The Environmental Paper Network
received $20,000 in general support to increase market demand for environmental
paper. The EPN Steering Committee has developed a two-year project focusing
on five priority areas that have been identified as critical to filling
the gaps in the environmental paper movement: 1) Network Coordination -
facilitating Steering Committee leadership and member participation, supporting
international networks, achieving additional unified, national “Visions”,
and facilitating ad hoc collaboration venues through “Action Groups”
and a conference call series; 2) Tools- collaborating to create a single
toolkit to assist institutional purchasers in making choices consistent
with the Common Vision, and developing graphically driven online databases
linking targeted paper products to Endangered Forests and controversial
mills; 3)Finance and Forests- developing a coordinated international strategy
among NGO’s on influencing global financial investment of new pulp
mills, and bringing progressive purchasers, progressive paper companies,
and NGOs together at events to identify opportunities to support common
goals for the protection of key Endangered Forest Areas; 4) Communications-
designing and launching a “What’s In Your Paper?” communications
campaign actively involving at least 30 organizations that features a one-stop
interactive website with purchasing guidance and tools for corporate/public
purchasers as well as downloadable tools for NGOs; and, 5) Increasing the
Supply of Recovered Fiber for Paper Production –leading organizations
to engage cities, counties, office buildings, businesses, and educational
institutions in collecting increasing amounts and better quality of high
grade and mixed paper, and increasing the capacity in North America to produce
recycled pulp. |
|
| Green
Press Initiative |
Contact Them
Asheville, NC |
| Green Press Initiative received
$15,000 to increase market demand for environmental paper in the U.S. book
and newsprint publishing sectors. Weeden funds will support increased efforts
to gain additional commitments from publishers, mills, printers, and others
to develop and implement meaningful paper policies. GPI is particularly
interested in motivating educational, religious and children’s book
publishers. GPI will also complete and release an industry benchmarking
report (with Book Industry Study Group) that measures per unit industry
climate impacts and other indicators of industry impacts and progress including
shifts in recycled fiber and FSC tonnage. Finally, funds will support a
collaborative partnership with the Markets Initiative (Canada) to reduce
the U.S. newsprint industry’s impacts on forests and communities in
Canada, Indonesia, and the U.S. Southeast. |
|
| Ipas |
Contact Them
Chapel Hill, North Carolina |
| Ipas was awarded $20,000 for its
“Advocacy and Action on Abortion Policy in Latin America” project.
Ipas will: galvanize key individuals and influential groups to support safe
abortion; build capacity among Ipas staff and partners to recognize and
respond to anti-choice opposition; and, mainstream abortion into other issues,
so that it is seen as an integral part of the spectrum of women’s
reproductive health and rights. Ipas will focus their regional policy work
on supporting the following activities: 1) convening a LAC regional planning
in June 2007 to develop a comprehensive LAC advocacy strategy and proposal;
2) continuing efforts to reverse the abortion ban in Nicaragua and to reinstate
therapeutic abortion; 3) preparing for the law change in the Federal District
(Mexico City) to permit abortion for any reason during the first trimester
of pregnancy, for which they will train and equip medical professionals,
prepare for legal challenges to the law, and offer workshops for providers
on values clarification and conscientious objection to minimize provider-related
barriers to access. |
|
| Markets
Initiative |
Contact Them
Vancouver, BC |
| Markets Initiative received
$15,000 to create market demand for environmental paper within the book,
magazine, and newspaper industries. MI works with heavy paper consumers
to encourage their suppliers to develop new products that contain ecologically
responsible alternatives such as agricultural, recycled, and FSC fiber.
MI will collaborate with Green Press Initiative to engage newspapers in
the US to develop formal Ancient Forest Friendly policies. As it does with
purchasers in the book and magazine industry, MI will provide newspapers
with tailored template policies and implementation plans, take executives
on endangered forests tours, and engage their advertisers to encourage AFF
and FCS papers. Other activities include:1) securing endangered forest commitments
from four of Canada's largest magazine conglomerates and five additional
printers; 2) leveraging the market influence of their signatories to gain
on-the-ground protection and change in logging practices; and 3) driving
the commercial scale production of agricultural paper pulp via a highly
publicized pilot trial with Canadian Geographic. |
|
| National
Family Planning and Reproductive Health Association |
Contact Them
Washington, D.C. |
| The National Family Planning and Reproductive
Health Association (NFPRHA) received $20,000 for the “Campaign to
Advance Access to Birth Control in the U.S.” This program will advocate
for a strong, well-funded Title X program, full Medicaid funding for family
planning services, and overall greater access to voluntary contraception
in the United States. NFRPHA will take advantage of the outcome of last
November’s election to intensify lobbying efforts to secure additional
funding for Title X in the FY 2007-2008 Appropriations bill. Because Medicaid
prohibits serving undocumented immigrants and has tightened requirements
for documenting citizenship, there is expected to be a growing demand by
immigrants for Title X services. Title X of the Public Health Service Act
funds the only distinct family planning program and serves more than 5 million
Americans needing subsidized family planning services and supplies each
year. Patients receiving care at birth control clinics funded through Title
X are disproportionately poor, uninsured, and ineligible for Medicaid. Title
X offers health services to illegal immigrants that are ineligible for any
other government sponsored contraception health programs. Elements of this
advocacy and education campaign include issuing briefs and fact sheets,
organizing coalitions, publishing and disseminating the latest policy changes
and action items, and presenting current family planning services and statistics
at meetings and conferences. |
|
| NumbersUSA
|
Contact Them
Arlington, Virginia |
| NumbersUSA was awarded $25,000
in general support to strengthen the voice of immigration reform in Washington.
After the defeat of the Senate amnesty bill earlier this year, NumbersUSA
was recognized by the media as the pre-eminent force on Capitol Hill working
for less immigration-driven population growth. Numbers has amassed over
450,000 activists members and according to Google has one of the top 3,000
most visited websites in the country. In the coming year Numbers will continue
to try and reshape the Congressional debate over immigration reform to focus
on immigration numbers. Their Capitol Hill team is working closely with
and educating Congress about two major pieces of legislation that would
reduce annual immigration-related population and implement the immigration
related recommendations of the bipartisan U.S. Commission on Immigration
Reform: The Nuclear Family Priority Act to effectively end the system of
“chain migration” and the Security and Fairness Enhancement
(SAFE) for American Act to abolish the visa lottery. Coupled with actions
on Capitol Hill, they will strengthen their growing citizen army and expand
their Sprawl/Maps Project, which provides a graphical representation of
how population growth and immigration affect sprawl, environmental quality,
and quality of life in particular counties, cities, and states. |
|
