Patagonia Environmental Initiatives 2008

Environmental Initiatives 2008

Table of Contents

learning as we grow

Business pundits have long observed that companies

share many of the same attributes as people. Their personalities comprise their actions, beliefs and values. And, like people, corporations learn from their experiences as they grow. years that significantly shaped our corporate personality.

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At Patagonia, we had two experiences in our formative

The first was in the early ’70s, when the mouth of the Ventura

River that runs behind our offices was threatened by a proposed development. We assumed there was nothing to be done to stop it. Then, a single activist galvanized the community and saved the river. We learned how important one person could be in changing the world, and we ended up supporting his efforts. Twenty-plus years later, Patagonia has contributed $31 million to groups working to save their backyard rivers, mountains, forests, wetlands and beaches.

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In

the early ’90s we learned again when we conducted an environmental audit of the fibers we use to make our clothes. We had assumed that synthetic fibers made of petroleum would be the villains, but it turned out that conventionally grown cotton was worse because more than 10% of the world’s pesticides and nearly 25% of its insecticides were sprayed on cotton plants. We immediately pledged to make all our cotton clothes from 100% organically grown cotton and lost money for two years because there wasn’t enough of it to satisfy even our needs. But then our customers starting supporting our efforts, more farmers started converting to organic methods and we were rewarded for doing the right thing.

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Over

the years, we’ve continued to recognize the importance of examining the environmental consequences of our business.

And we can’t manage what we don’t measure. So last year we launched “The Footprint Chronicles” at patagonia.com, where our customers can follow some of our products from design to delivery, see for themselves our efforts to measure their environmental footprint and comment on our blog.

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We know from experience that everything we make pollutes.

But instead of throwing our hands up in despair, we are doing everything we can to reduce the environmental footprint of our products because it’s the right thing to do. And as our friend David Quammen has pointed out, despair, as a response, is not only useless, it’s also not very much fun.

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Learning as We Grow

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Profits or No Profits

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West Virginia Wilderness Coalition Coalition

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Biodiversity

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St. Paul Store Internship Report

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Money Isn’t Everything

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Graphic in Nature

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Taking the Sweat Out of Sweatshops Sweatshops

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Concerning the Customer

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Save the Waves

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Water/Marine

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The Sugar Pine Foundation

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A Good Fit

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This Grand Show Is Eternal

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Amis de la Terre

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Forests

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Salmon Run

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Closing the Loop

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ForestEthics

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HEAL Utah

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Alternative Energy

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Taking Measure

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Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc.

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Sustainable Agriculture

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Dollar for Dollar

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Louisiana Bucket Brigade

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Social Activism

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Alaska Wilderness League

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Roll ’Em

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Great Basin Resource Watch

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Resource Extraction

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Leaving Work for Good

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Iwate Committee to Protect the Sanriku Sea from Radiation

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Toxics/Nuclear

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Join the Fight

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The Conservation Alliance

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Photo: An ash tree rises from the ashes of a ’54 Ford in South Dakota. Layne Kennedy

1% For The Planet

profits or no profits

environmental grants program

Since the early 1970s, when a young biologist reminded us that local action and undeterred passion can save the places we love and play in, we’ve made it part of our business to support groups fighting environmental battles on their home fronts. Starting with desk space in 1973 for “Friends of the Ventura River” (a one-man effort), our program has grown to giving 1% of sales annually, profits or no profits, to environmental groups working to save their rivers, their forests, their mountains and oceans, and every special place in-between.

To date, that’s meant more than $32 million in grants and in-kind donations to over a thousand organizations worldwide. Many of these are innovative groups working at the grassroots level, some too small or too in-your-face to get traditional corporate donations. We take pride in funding these activists who take bold and strategic steps to keep our air free of toxins and our food GE-free, to make sure our rivers and oceans are swimmable, to protect our last wild places before they are lost forever.

Even more important to us, this program has meant success. Wilderness protected from coast to coast. Rivers freed from their dams. Species kept from extinction. Ecosystems revived. We’ve detailed several recent grantee successes on the pages to come.

With each new gain, hope for more victories, and a more whole earth, grows.

But for each new victory, challenges abound. Mountaintops are vaporized, taking habitats with them and polluting communities 4 Volunteers with the Eastern Sierra Stewardship Corps head for the hills in the Golden Trout Wilderness, California. Todd Vogel

downstream. The Wyoming Front, an iconic western landscape, is threatened with oil and gas extraction. Ocean fisheries are on the brink of collapse. Family farms are pushed out by agribusiness.

Communities around the world are using their meager resources to take on Goliaths that threaten their air, water, shoreline and forests. For these reasons we take heart in the victories, and continue to fund the many small, embattled and battling groups.

Grant-giving is a company-wide mission. Every employee, no matter their job, contributes to company sales. Our retail stores contribute to groups in their communities, often building relationships that go beyond financial help. Our sales representatives work with wholesale dealers to fund groups through events.

Patagonia Japan, Europe and Chile reach out to groups in their regions. In the U.S., employees at our Reno distribution center and Ventura headquarters elect colleagues to serve on grants councils that decide which groups we should fund.

In this report, we attempt to quantify our overall contribution to environmental work in fiscal year 2008, totaling $2,992,264. We describe an array of programs and list every organization that received a grant from us from May 1, 2007 – April 30, 2008.

We’ve broken them out into eight categories and included each group’s mission, location and contact information. We hope that you, too, will be inspired by their work and help them in any way you can.

Now entering its seventh year, 1% For The Planet (1%FTP) is a rapidly growing network of businesses committed to creating a healthier planet. Members donate at least 1% of their sales to support environmental organizations worldwide.

Patagonia cofounded this nonprofit organization with Blue Ribbon Flies. It has grown steadily since, branching out across industries and around the globe.

Membership rose dramatically in 2007 with the addition of 420 new member companies – more than one per day. The organization now has nearly 850 member businesses, located in 26 countries.

In fact, with the recent addition of a Land Rover gear company in South Africa, its members and recipients can now be found on every continent but Antarctica (they’re working on it).

To date, the organization has channeled $30 million into the hands of environmental groups around the world. Collectively, 1%FTP members contributed more than $10 million to environmental groups in 2007 alone. This places 1%FTP squarely among the largest global funders of environmental work.

To learn more, visit: onepercentfortheplanet.org

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Alliance for the Wild Rockies Helena, MT www.wildrockiesalliance.org

Biodiversity A growing number of scientists and activists are convinced that the way to protect our environment

Alliance for the Wild Rockies works to secure the ecological integrity of the wild Rockies bioregion through citizen empowerment, conservation biology, sustainable economic models and environmental law.

is through the preservation of entire ecosystems. While many groups we support are working on distinct pieces of the environmental puzzle, the groups listed in this section are working to fit those

American Wildlands

pieces together to protect large landscapes of vibrant biodiversity. Total given in this category in

Bozeman, MT www.wildlands.org

fiscal year 2008: $717,808.

Spotlight: West Virginia Wilderness Coalition A mayor, a businessman and a pastor walk into a room …

While this may sound like the opening line to a joke, these people actually did come together to protect the wild places they love by testifying at a Congressional hearing for the Wild Monongahela Act in February 2008.

The act, introduced a month earlier in Congress, is supported by a coalition of religious, labor, sports and business groups and is sponsored by all five members of West Virginia’s Congressional delegation. Aiming to protect more than 47,000 acres of wild lands, it would create the first designated wilderness in the state in 25 years.

This historic legislation is due largely to the vision and hard work of the West Virginia Wilderness Coalition. Formed in 2002, the coalition got together to secure permanent protection for the state’s federal lands under the 1964 Wilderness Act. Two years later, they had mapped out 15 special areas worthy of such protection, and worked to gain diverse support for these amazing places. Based on their maps and the support they were able to generate, the Wild Monongehela Act was introduced and is now working its way through Congress. Patagonia has supported the group’s efforts since 2004.

The coalition isn’t done yet. While they work to pass the bill this year, they’re aiming to expand on the areas included in the final version to ensure that all of West Virginia’s wild places get the protection they deserve. That would be the best punch line of all.

Photo: An area proposed for wilderness protection by the West Virginia Wilderness Coali-

American Wildlands seeks to protect the West’s wild places and advocate for the careful management of its natural resources.

A Pas de Loup

Alaska Marine Conservation Council

Dieulefit, France www.apasdeloup.org

Anchorage, AK www.akmarine.org

A Pas de Loup links nonprofit organizations with volunteers and promotes peaceful coexistence between wolves and shepherds in the Alps.

AMCC is an Anchorage community-based organization working to protect the health and diversity of its marine ecosystem.

Alaska Center for the Environment

Alaska Wilderness League

Anchorage, AK www.akcenter.org

Washington, DC www.alaskawild.org

ACE works to enhance Alaskans’ quality of life by protecting wild places, fostering sustainable communities and promoting recreational opportunities.

AWL leads the effort to preserve Alaska’s wilderness by engaging citizens, sharing resources, collaborating with organizations, educating the public and providing a courageous, constant and victorious voice for Alaska in the nation’s capital.

Alaska Conservation Foundation Anchorage, AK www.akcf.org ACF serves as a broad grassroots base for the protection of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Alaskan rainforest.

Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Wiedereinbürgerung und Bestandserhaltung der Lachse, Meer-und Bachforellen

Aspen Center for Environmental Studies Aspen, CO www.aspennature.org ACES works to inspire a life-long commitment to the earth by educating for environmental responsibility, conserving and restoring the balance of natural communities, and advancing the ethic that the earth must be respected and nurtured.

Association for the Protection of the Adirondacks Niskayuna, NY www.protectadks.org AFPA is dedicated to sustaining the ecological integrity and mutual well-being of natural and human communities of the Adirondack Park.

Austin Parks Foundation

Aukrug-Homfeld, Germany 49-4873-598

Austin, TX www.austinparks.org

This group seeks to protect, restore and reintroduce the once abundant species of sea trout, Atlantic salmon and brown trout into the river system of the rivers Stör and Bramau.

The Austin Parks Foundation is committed to providing the resources and partnerships that create and sustain beautiful, active parks in Austin, Texas.

Buffalo Field Campaign West Yellowstone, MT www.buffalofieldcampaign.org The Buffalo Field Campaign is the only group working 365 days a year to protect the Yellowstone buffalo herd – the only continuously wild, free-roaming and genetically pure population of bison in the United States.

Chico, CA www.becnet.org

Tucson, AZ www.biologicaldiversity.org

BEC seeks to protect the Sacramento Valley and foothills ecoregion and its residents’ quality of life through the preservation, conservation and restoration of the land, air and water.

The Center for Biological Diversity works through science, law and creative media to secure a future for all species, great or small, hovering on the brink of extinction.

California Wilderness Coalition

Center for Native Ecosystems

Oakland, CA www.calwild.org

Denver, CO www.nativeecosystems.org

CWC works to ensure the permanent protection of California’s remaining wilderness through grassroots organizing, public education and advocacy.

The Center for Native Ecosystems is dedicated to conserving and recovering the native species and ecosystems of its region.

BARK

Tucson, AZ www.azwild.org

Portland, OR www.bark-out.org

Vancouver, BC www.cpawsbc.org

AWC is the foremost protector of wilderness in Arizona, working closely with local groups and environmental organizations in the Southwest.

BARK works to bring about the transformation of Mount Hood National Forest into a place where natural processes prevail, wildlife thrives and local communities have a social, cultural and economic investment in its restoration and preservation.

CPAWS seeks to protect wild ecosystems and preserve the full diversity of habitats by promoting awareness, encouraging individual action and working cooperatively with other organizations.

Accokeek, MD www.fergusonfoundation.org

Arlington, VA www.arlingtonenvironment.org

The Alice Ferguson Foundation provides experiences that encourage connections between people, the natural environment, farming and the cultural heritage of the Potomac River watershed, which lead to personal environmental responsibility.

ACE works to improve the environment of Arlington County, Virginia, together with citizens, civic associations, government agencies, and the business and professional communities.

Biodiversity Conservation Alliance Laramie, WY www.voiceforthewild.org BCA is dedicated to protecting wildlife and wild places in Wyoming and surrounding states, particularly on public land.

CBRI seeks to increase the societal relevance of biological specimen collections held in natural history museums with an emphasis on conserving biodiversity.

Center for Biological Diversity

Arizona Wilderness Coalition

Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment

San Francisco, CA www.calacademy.org/research/cbri

Butte Environmental Council

Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society - Vancouver BC Chapter

Alice Ferguson Foundation

Center for Biodiversity Research & Information

Cascadia Wildlands Project Eugene, OR www.cascwild.org CWP educates, organizes and agitates to protect the beauty, ecological integrity and future of the Cascadia bioregion.

Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center Twain Harte, CA www.cserc.org CSERC works to identify threats to the central region of the Sierra Nevada, to educate the public about those threats, to find solutions to those threats and to advocate for those solutions.

Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection Tucson, AZ www.sonorandesert.org CSDP works to achieve the long-term conservation of biological diversity and ecological function of the Sonoran Desert through comprehensive habitat and land-use planning.

tion in Roaring Plains, West Virginia. Jonathan Jessup jonathanjessup.com Biodiversity

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Colorado Environmental Coalition

Deschutes Basin Land Trust

EcoFlight

ForestEthics

Friends of Nevada Wilderness

Friends of the Mountain to Sea Trail

Denver, CO www.ourcolorado.org

Bend, OR www.deschuteslandtrust.org

Aspen, CO www.ecoflight.info

San Francisco, CA www.forestethics.org

Reno, NV www.nevadawilderness.org

Louisburg, NC www.ncmst.org

Colorado Environmental Coalition works to protect Colorado’s environment by educating and mobilizing citizens, and providing technical and organizing assistance to environmental organizations and other allies.

Deschutes Basin Land Trust seeks to protect special lands in the Deschutes basin by working cooperatively with landowners and communities.

EcoFlight offers a fresh perspective for understanding the issues that threaten the integrity of America’s western public lands by providing an aerial overview from small aircraft that reveals the enormity of challenges to the natural world.

ForestEthics works in Canada, the U.S. and Chile to protect endangered forests by determining which forests are endangered, which corporations are purchasing the products of that destruction, and holding those companies publicly accountable.

FNW works to preserve all qualified Nevada public lands as wilderness, protect all present and potential wilderness from ongoing threats, educate the public about the values of and need for wilderness, and improve the management and restoration of these wild lands.

Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail exists to link a 935-plus mile network of footpaths, roads and state bike routes as a foot trail that reaches across North Carolina, from the mountains to the sea.

Friends of Blackwater Canyon

Friends of Panther Creek State Park

Charleston, WV www.saveblackwater.org

Morristown, TN www.friendsofpanthercreek.org

Friends of Blackwater Canyon works to protect the biodiversity of Blackwater Canyon – the recreational, scenic and ecological “Crown Jewel” of West Virginia.

Friends exists to support, improve, protect and preserve the character of Panther Creek State Park, to participate in activities for its betterment and to educate about the park’s unique qualities.

Dharma Technology Colorado Mountain Club and Wilderness Workshop Carbondale, CO www.wildernessworkshop.org Colorado Mountain Club and Wilderness Workshop advocates for the preservation of Colorado’s mountain ecosystems.

Concerned Resource & Environmental Workers Ojai, CA www.thecrew.org The C.R.E.W. is an environmentally oriented nonprofit youth leadership and employment organization that provides paid employment and community service opportunities to local youth working to preserve, maintain and improve public and private wild lands and protect communities against the threat of wildfire.

Craighead Environmental Research Institute Bozeman, MT www.grizzlybear.org CERI is a network of biologists dedicated to providing reliable information and using innovative research and conservation planning to foster ecologically sound management of wildlife and its habitats.

Salt Lake City, UT www.dharmatech.org DharmaTechnology helps environmental and social nonprofits achieve their goals through strategic information technology planning, database implementation and management, Web development and other services.

Endangered Species Coalition Washington, DC www.stopextinction.org The Endangered Species Coalition works on behalf of imperiled species by defending and protecting the federal Endangered Species Act.

Dogwood Alliance

Environmental Flying Services

Asheville, NC www.dogwoodalliance.org

Tucson, AZ www.eflying.org

Dogwood Alliance is the only organization in the South holding corporations accountable for the impact of their industrial forestry practices on forests and communities.

EFS is a one-woman, one-airplane, two-country organization that provides an essential tool – flight – to help activists protect wildlife and save ground in hard to reach areas.

Earth Team Environmental Network Berkeley, CA www.earthteam.net Earth Team is working to create a new generation of environmental leaders through hands-on environmental work and community-based projects that inspire dedication to a healthy environment.

Environmental Protection Information Center Garberville, CA www.wildcalifornia.org EPIC works to protect the long-term health of Northern California ecosystems and provides a resource center for community environmental activism.

Earthroots Fund

Farmington River Watershed Assoc.

Toronto, ON www.earthroots.org

Simsbury, CT www.frwa.org

Earthroots works aggressively for the protection of wilderness, wildlife and watersheds in Ontario, through research, education and action.

FRWA is a citizen-based organization at the forefront of restoration and conservation issues, such as water quality and allocation, recreational usage, open space, and wetland and floodplain protection.

letters from the field

Friends of the Wild Swan Swan Lake, MT www.wildswan.org FOWS is dedicated to preserving water quality, fisheries, roadless areas, wildlife and wilderness in the Swan Valley and northwest Montana.

Grand Canyon Wildlands Council Flagstaff, AZ www.grandcanyonwildlands.org

Friends of Lafitte Corridor

Friends of Rose Canyon

New Orleans, LA www.folc-nola.org

San Diego, CA www.rosecanyon.org

FLC seeks to preserve the open space of the Lafitte corridor, from the French Quarter to Canal Boulevard, by advocating and facilitating the creation of a greenway with bicycling and pedestrian paths linking neighborhoods, cultural features, historic sites, retail areas and public spaces.

Friends of Rose Canyon works to protect, preserve and restore Rose Canyon and the Rose Creek watershed.

Friends of Scotchman Peaks Wilderness

Flagstaff, AZ www.gcwolfrecovery.org

Friends of Mt. Evans & Lost Creek Wildernesses

Sagle, ID www.scotchmanpeaks.org

The Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project is dedicated to bringing back wolves and restoring ecological health to the Grand Canyon region.

Evergreen, CO www.fomelc.org

FSPW seeks permanent protection for the Scotchman Peaks roadless area by securing a federal wilderness designation.

Friends provides advocacy through stewardship, education and outreach in the Mount Evans & Lost Creek Wilderness areas of the Arapaho and Pike national forests.

GCWC works to protect and restore the ecological integrity of the vast, biologically rich lands surrounding the Grand Canyon.

Grand Canyon Wolf Recovery Project

Friends of the Inyo Bishop, CA www.friendsoftheinyo.org Friends works to preserve the diverse wild lands, scenic beauty, wild rivers, varied flora and fauna, and abundant opportunities for lowimpact, sustainable recreation on the east side of the Sierra Nevada.

Great Old Broads for Wilderness Durango, CO www.greatoldbroads.org The Great Old Broads for Wilderness advocates for the inclusion of America’s threatened wild lands into the National Wilderness Preservation System.

St. Paul Store Internship Report “Buckthorn removal, while important, just isn’t sexy enough. Are there any other projects?”

“A basking turtle survey?”

So we had our internship idea, and now we had to figure out how to find, identify and count all the turtle species along both shores of a 72-mile stretch of the Mississippi River, including islands (lots of islands) in the newly minted Mississippi River National Park. Two borrowed canoes, four borrowed pfds, two dry bags, 10 foam blocks and 320 internship hours later, the St. Paul, Minnesota, store staff had successfully canoed those 72-plus miles, located and counted a wide variety of turtles and had the amazing experience of participating as a team in a Patagonia environmental internship.

There are too many stories and too much laughter to fit into this space. We can talk of blisters, sore backs, thunderstorms, barges, snakes and garbage.

We saw nesting eagles, canoed through the largest heron rookery in the upper Midwest, saw carp bigger than we thought possible, along with fox, deer, cormorants and pelicans. We got dirty, sweaty and became a small part of the solution to the environmental crisis. For us, environmental activism is no longer a theory but a reality shared with each other and our community.

The effect of our work will last well beyond our summer internship. As individuals and as a group we assumed responsibility for all natural places simply by spending time on the Mississippi. In addition, the internship produced a turtle survey for the new national park, a summer of memories and 15 committed environmental activists. Time and money well spent.

– Ellen Grady, Patagonia Store Manager, St. Paul Photo: Patagonia St. Paul store employees look for basking turtles in the Mississippi National River and Recreation area, Minnesota. Ellen Grady

8 Biodiversity

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Working With the Media, Building MoMentuM in your CoMMunity, CaMpaign StrategieS, graSSrootS loBBying, FundraiSing StrategieS, Marketing your iSSue, getting your MeSSage out, eFFeCtive internet organizing, Working With BuSineSS

money isn’t everything

tools for grassroots activists conference

“The more barriers you have in front of you, the more creative you have to be.” ~Yvon Chouinard, at the first Tools Conference in 1994 Each environmental group we fund is made up of dedicated, passionate individuals working hard, often with scant resources and little outside help. They might be organizing roadblocks to protest coal-bed methane gas fields from destroying the Sacred Headwaters region of British Columbia, generating public comment on the removal of dams on the Snake and Columbia rivers to restore healthy salmon populations, lobbying Congress for the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act or fighting the Massey Corporation to stop the destructive process of mountaintop removal – all different, important, crucial battles that require a wide range of skills to effectively and strategically wage. Skills that every activist needs but often lacks.

More than 10 years ago, we stepped back and asked ourselves what more we could do to help these activists acquire those much-needed skills. Patagonia had the knowhow to research, develop, design and market a high-quality product, we thought: Why not lend activists our marketing tools? It doesn’t matter whether you’re mar10 Takes from the Tools for Grassroots Activists Conference at Fallen Leaf Lake, California. Photos courtesy of Patagonia

keting clothes or trying to pull down a dam: The same skills will serve you. So we brought together our first group of activists in 1994, and every 18 months since, we’ve hosted our Tools for Grassroots Activists Conference.

The Tools Conference invitation list is directed at those who will lead the charge in the environmental movement for years to come. And over the course of the conference, a community – a network – evolves that serves these activists long after they leave.

In May 2008, we hosted the 10th Tools for Grassroots Activists Conference. In celebration of the occasion, we added an additional day of workshops and speakers to include a session on Internet organizing and media messaging. They joined workshops on the time-tested skills of lobbying, fundraising and community building.

Passion and know-how are a powerful combination.

The conference cost $98,965. Judging by activists’ response, it was money well spent.

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Groupe d’Etude et de Protection des Oiseaux en Guyane Cayenne, France www.gepog.org GEPOG works to protect French Guyana’s fragile forests against illegal and destructive gold mining.

Growing Solutions Restoration Education Institute Santa Barbara, CA www.growingsolutions.org

Hikers enjoy a golden moment at Gold Butte during an outing led by the Nevada Wilderness Project. Kristie Connolly

Great Plains Restoration Council Fort Worth, TX www.gprc.org GPRC protects and restores indigenous prairies and builds healthy, sustainable communities on the Great Plains.

Growing Solutions Restoration Education Institute dedicates itself to the restoration and preservation of California’s remarkable botanic wealth and rich diversity.

I-90 Wildlife Bridges Coalition

Keystone Conservation

Mageshima No Shizen Wo Wamoru Kai

Natural Resources Defense Council

Norwalk Seaport Association

Seattle, WA www.i90wildlifebridges

Bozeman, MT www.keystoneconservation.us

Kagoshima-ken, Japan http://mageshima.com

New York, NY www.nrdc.org

Norwalk, CT www.seaport.org

I-90 advocates for high quality wildlife connectivity measures in the I-90 Snoqualmie Pass East Project, while furthering efforts to improve habitat in the wildlife corridors and educate on the importance of wildlife connectivity in transportation planning.

Keystone Conservation works to conserve, protect and restore native predators and their habitats throughout the northern Rockies and High Plains.

Mageshima No Shizen Wo Wamoru Kai works to protect native land species, including rare deer, endangered sea turtles and fishery resources around Mage Island off the west of Tanegashima Island of Kagoshima.

NRDC exists to safeguard the earth: its people, its plants and animals, and the natural systems on which all life depends.

The Norwalk Seaport Association is devoted to maritime preservation, education and to the Norwalk area’s seafaring heritage.

Nevada Wilderness Project

Oregon Natural Desert Association

Reno, NV www.wildnevada.org

Bend, OR www.onda.org

NWP seeks to save the state’s most spectacular, rugged and imperiled public lands as permanent wilderness, the strongest possible protection under federal law.

ONDA works to protect, defend and restore the health of Oregon’s native deserts and water from irresponsible livestock grazing, mining and geothermal development.

New Mexico Wilderness Alliance

Organbidexka Col Libre

Albuquerque, NM www.nmwild.org

Luxe-Sumberraute, France www.organbidexka.org

NMWA works to ensure the protection and restoration of all remaining wild lands in New Mexico through federal wilderness designation.

Organbidexka Col Libre’s seeks to protect migratory birds in and around the Pyrenees, studying them and educating the public against the unsustainable taking of different species.

Klamath-Siskiyou Wildlands Center Idaho Conservation League Boise, ID www.wildidaho.org The Idaho Conservation League is Idaho’s voice for clean water, clean air and wilderness – values fundamental to Idaho’s quality of life.

Habitat Works of Southern California

Independence Pass Foundation

La Crescenta, CA www.habitatwork.org

Aspen, CO www.independencepass.org

Habitat Works is an environmental stewardship action group producing volunteer projects to improve the habitats of endangered, threatened and perturbed species in Southern California.

The Independence Pass Foundation works to sponsor and direct projects that maintain and enhance the environmental and recreational quality of Colorado’s Independence Pass area.

Greater Yellowstone Coalition Bozeman, MT www.greateryellowstone.org GYC is a coalition of organizations, businesses and citizens dedicated to protecting the ecological qualities of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Greenbelt Alliance San Francisco, CA www.greenbelt.org Greenbelt Alliance works to make the ninecounty San Francisco Bay Area a better place to live by protecting the region’s greenbelt and improving the quality of life in its cities and towns.

12 Biodiversity

Hells Canyon Preservation Council

Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance

La Grande, OR www.hellscanyon.org

Jackson, WY www.jhalliance.org

The Hells Canyon Preservation Council is dedicated to developing, promoting and enforcing public policy that protects and restores Oregon’s Hells Canyon-Wallowa and Blue Mountain ecosystems.

The Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance dedicates itself to responsible land stewardship in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, to ensure that human activities are in harmony with the area’s irreplaceable wildlife, scenic and other natural resources.

Highlands Nature Conservancy

Jackson Hole Wildlife Foundation

Bainbridge, OH 937-365-1600

Jackson, WY www.jhwildlife.org

HNC works to cultivate awareness and appreciation of the region known as the Rocky Fork Gorge located in south-central Ohio, by sponsoring educational programs that teach about the region’s flora, fauna, ecosystems, geology, history and biodiversity.

JHWF works to promote greater human compatibility with wildlife through programs to reduce road kill, remove fences and its Bear Wise Community Project.

Ashland, OR www.kswild.org KS Wild is an advocate for at-risk wildlife and forests in the Klamath and Rogue River watersheds of northwest California and southwest Oregon.

Kokopelli Alès, France www.kokopelli.asso.fr Kokopelli works to protect the biodiversity of food crops through a bank of non-genetically modified seeds, a network of organic seeds cultivators and lobbying actions.

Lula Lake Land Trust Lookout Mountain, GA www.lulalake.org

Manomet Center for Conservation Services Manomet, MA www.manomet.org Manomet conducts research on natural systems and wildlife, using science to bring people together and guide them in the development of practical strategies that improve conditions for wildlife, habitats and people.

Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation San Diego, CA www.mtrp.org The MTRP Foundation, in partnership with the City of San Diego, seeks to preserve and protect the natural environment of Mission Trails Regional Park and to provide and promote educational and recreational opportunities.

Lula Lake Land Trust works on conservation, education and research in Georgia’s Rock Creek watershed.

Mouvement pour les Droits et le Respect des Generations Futures

Lynn Canal Conservation

MDRGF works to promote sustainable agriculture and reduce the use of pesticides in Europe, especially in France.

Haines, AK www.lynncanalconservation.org Lynn Canal Conservation works to promote ecosystem integrity, protect quality of life and foster environmental awareness in northernSoutheast Alaska.

Paris, France www.mdrgf.org

Naples Coalition Goleta, CA www.savenaples.org The Naples Coalition seeks to preserve the rural character of the Naples property, and by extension, California’s entire Gaviota coast.

North Country Trail Association Lowell, MI www.northcountrytrail.org The North Country Trail Association works to develop, maintain, preserve and promote the North Country National Scenic Trail through a national network of volunteers, chapters, partner organizations and government agencies.

Northern Plains Resource Council Billings, MT www.northernplains.org NPRC empowers Montana citizens to protect the state’s water quality, family farms and ranches, and quality of life.

Ozark Natural Science Center Huntsville, AR www.onsc.us The Ozark Natural Science Center is dedicated to enhancing the understanding, appreciation and stewardship of the Ozark natural environment.

Piedmont Environmental Alliance Pfafftown, NC www.peanc.org Piedmont Environmental Alliance works to facilitate environmental sustainability in the Piedmont Triad community through education, networking and outreach.

Graphic in Nature Each year we offer the editing, graphic design and print coordination services of staff in our Creative Services Department to environmental groups in need of brochures, logos and fundraising materials. This year we worked with six different groups, helping them to further their respective missions. We designed a beautiful poster, postcard and program for the annual Ventura Hillsides Music Festival fundraiser with Toots and the Maytals, Jack Johnson and other musicians who helped raise $150,000 toward saving a hillside in Ventura, Calif., from development. Friends of the St. Croix Headwaters, which is working to protect a Wisconsin watershed threatened by pollution and home-building, got a new membership brochure. We produced a new logo for World Trout – which, as its name indicates, defends endangered trout worldwide. We designed a fundraising calendar for The Ojai Raptor Center, a raptor rehab effort in Ventura County with an aviary here at Patagonia headquarters.

We also produced fliers, registration forms, a web page and runner’s number plates for our annual Salmon Run (see page 49), a 5K run/walk that raised $12,000 for Los Padres ForestWatch.

And, we designed artwork for the Copper River Watershed Project’s Salmon Soil Compost, the proceeds from which will help to pay for the group’s work on behalf of Alaska’s Copper River.

This year we donated approximately $12,690 in labor.

Biodiversity

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Pinnacles Partnership

Raptor View Research Institute

San Bruno Mountain Watch

Shelby Farms Park Conservancy

Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project

The Center for Birds of Prey

Paicines, CA www.pinnaclespartnership.org

Missoula, MT www.raptorview.org

Brisbane, CA www.mountainwatch.org

Memphis, TN www.shelbyfarmspark.org

Denver, CO www.restoretherockies.org

Charleston, SC www.thecenterforbirdsofprey.org

The Pinnacles Partnership seeks to ensure excellence in education, resource stewardship and visitor experiences at Pinnacles National Monument.

Raptor View Research Institute is dedicated to the conservation and preservation of raptor species and their habitat.

San Bruno Mountain Watch works on behalf of San Bruno Mountain, studying it, teaching others about its unique values, preserving its integrity and ensuring its future.

SFPC seeks to create one of the great urban parks of the 21st century at Shelby Farms Park by managing the park and leading a master planning process that attracts national experts to plan its future.

The Southern Rockies Ecosystem Project is a science-based organization working to protect, restore and connect ecosystems in the southern Rockies of Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.

The Center for Birds of Prey is dedicated to the study and welfare of birds and their habitats and to engaging the public in important environmental issues that affect birds and humans alike.

Sky Island Alliance

Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance

Tucson, AZ www.skyislandalliance.org

Salt Lake City, UT www.suwa.org

Sky Island Alliance works to preserve and restore the native biological diversity in the Sky Islands of the southwestern U.S. and northwestern Mexico.

SUWA works to protect outstanding public lands at the heart of the Colorado Plateau as wilderness under the 1964 Wilderness Act.

Clearwater Conservancy exists to conserve and restore land and water resources in central Pennsylvania, and do environmental outreach to the community.

Tennessee Clean Water Network

The Lands Council

Knoxville, TN www.tcwn.org

Spokane, WA www.landscouncil.org

TCWN organizes Tennesseans to claim their right to clean water and healthy communities by fostering civic engagement, building coalitions and advancing water policy for a sustainable future.

The Lands Council safeguards and revitalizes inland Northwest forests, water and wildlife through advocacy, education, action and community engagement.

Plateau Restoration Moab, UT www.plateaurestoration.org Plateau Restoration works to protect and restore native wildlife habitats of the Colorado Plateau through education, ecological restoration and research.

Red River Gorge Climbers Coalition Lexington, KY www.rrgcc.org RRGCC works to ensure open, public access to ample, quality outdoor rock climbing opportunities to meet the needs of current and future climbers and to encourage the conservation of the natural environment on publicly managed and privately owned land by protecting, promoting and ensuring responsible climbing.

Powder River Basin Resource Council Sheridan, WY www.powderriverbasin.org PRBRC is a grassroots organization dedicated to conserving Wyoming’s unique resources, empowering its citizens and preserving the state’s rural lifestyle.

Prairie Dog Coalition Boulder, CO www.prairiedogcoalition.org The Prairie Dog Coalition is dedicated to the protection of prairie dogs and restoration of prairie dog ecosystems.

Prickly Pear Land Trust Helena, MT www.pricklypearlt.org Prickly Pear Land Trust is an association of community-minded individuals committed to protecting the open space in Lewis and Clark, Broadwater and Jefferson counties in Montana.

14 Biodiversity

Residents Committee to Protect the Adirondacks North Creek, NY www.rcpa.org RCPA is dedicated to the protection and stewardship of the natural environment and human communities of Adirondack Park for current and future generations.

RESTORE: The North Woods Concord, MA www.restore.org RESTORE works to restore wilderness and native wildlife in New England.

Rocky Mountain Recreation Initiative Nederland, CO www.rmri.org RMRI seeks to protect Colorado’s wild lands from off-road vehicles and other high-impact recreation, and to promote recreation policies that encourage wildlife and quiet recreation opportunities.

San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council Alamosa, CO www.slvec.org San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council works to protect and restore the biological diversity and natural resources of the Upper Rio Grande bioregion, while balancing human needs with ecological values.

Sand Creek Regional Greenway

Smart Growth BC

Denver, CO www.sandcreekgreenway.org

Vancouver, BC www.smartgrowthbc.ca

SCRG exists to create a wilderness in the city by developing a nearly 14-mile stretch of river habitat running through the cities of Denver, Commerce City and Aurora.

Devoted to fiscally, socially and environmentally responsible land use and development, Smart Growth BC works throughout British Columbia with community groups, businesses, developers, planners, municipalities and the public to create more livable communities.

Save Our Ring of Green Santa Rosa Valley, CA www.SaveOurRingOfGreen.com SOROG is a group of citizens concerned about native wildlife working to protect the ring of open space around the city of Thousand Oaks to stop urban sprawl and the destruction of wildlife corridors.

Sea Turtle Restoration Project Forest Knolls, CA www.seaturtles.org STRP works to protect sea turtle populations and the marine environment in ways that meet the needs of sea turtles and communities that share the beaches and waters with these endangered species.

Soda Mountain Wilderness Council Ashland, OR 541-482-8660 SMWC works to promote and protect wild lands in the Soda Mountain - Pilot Rock area, where the globally significant Siskiyou Mountains join the southern Cascade Range.

Southern Appalachian Biodiversity Project Asheville, NC http://content.wildsouth.org SABP is a regional citizen’s organization dedicated to the defense and restoration of the native biodiversity of southern Appalachia.

Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation Nashville, TN www.tenngreen.org The Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation is a statewide organization committed to conserving and protecting Tennessee’s rich heritage and natural resources.

Tennessee River Gorge Trust Chattanooga, TN www.trgt.org Tennessee River Gorge Trust works on behalf of the Tennessee River Gorge through land protection, education and promotion of good land stewardship.

The Clearwater Conservancy, Inc. State College, PA www.clearwaterconservancy.org

The Lands Council works on behalf of Northwest waters like Snow Creek in Idaho. Tania Ellersick

The Nature Conservancy of South Carolina Columbia, SC www.nature.org TNC works around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people.

The Peregrine Fund Boise, ID www.peregrinefund.org The Peregrine Fund works to ensure the survival and restore diminished populations of birds, mostly raptors, worldwide.

The River Project

The Madison-Morgan Conservancy

The Nature Consortium

Madison, GA www.mmcgeorgia.org

Seattle, WA www.naturec.org

MMC provides public education on conservation matters and protects and enhances the heritage and quality of life of the residents of Morgan County by preserving green space, farmland and timberland.

The Nature Consortium is a community-based organization working to teach environmental lessons through the creative arts and hands-on conservation projects.

The River Project seeks to encourage responsible management of their watershed lands and revitalization of their rivers for the social, economic and environmental benefit of their communities.

The Ohio River Way

Trustees for Alaska

Cincinnati, OH www.ohioriverway.org

Anchorage, AK www.trustees.org

The Ohio River Way is working to create a 150-mile trail, braiding together the arts, commerce, ecology, heritage and recreational assets of the river corridor.

TFA provides free strategic and legal services to environmental groups, native Alaskan villages, community groups, hunters, anglers and others concerned with protecting Alaska’s quality of life.

The Mount Nittany Conservancy, Inc. State College, PA www.MtNittany.org MNC works to protect Mt. Nittany from commercial and residential development by acquiring land and maintaining areas already under the conservancy’s ownership.

New York, NY www.riverproject.org

Biodiversity

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Tsushima Yamaneko Wo Mamoru Kai Nagawaki, Japan www5.ocn.ne.jp/~yamaneko/ Tsushima Yamaneko Wo Mamoru Kai works to maintain and recover habitat for Tsushima Yama-Neko, a wildcat that is one of the most endangered mammals in Japan.

Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation Foundation Virginia Beach, VA www.wildriveroutfitters.com Virginia Beach Parks & Recreation Foundation supports its namesake by raising funds, accepting gifts and providing other resources to enhance the department’s programs.

Upper Arkansas & South Platte Project

West Virginia Wilderness Coalition

Florissant, CO www.wildconnections.org

Masontown, WV www.wvwild.org

UASPP works to identify, protect and restore areas needed to ensure the survival of native species and the ecological richness of the Upper Arkansas and South Platte mountain watersheds of Colorado.

WVWC works to secure congressional wilderness protection for special federal lands in West Virginia.

Western Colorado Congress Utah Backcountry Volunteers Salt Lake City, UT www.utahbackcountry.org UBV partners enthusiastic volunteers with strapped public land agencies to complete service projects that repair, restore and maintain Utah’s spectacular public lands.

Grand Junction, CO www.wccongress.org WCC is dedicated to challenging injustice by organizing people to increase their power over decisions that affect their lives to create healthy, sustainable communities, social and economic justice, environmental stewardship, and a truly democratic society.

Wild Utah Project

Wildwest Institute

Salt Lake City, UT www.wildutahproject.org

Missoula, MT www.wildwestinstitute.org

The Wild Utah Project seeks to restore and maintain ecosystems throughout North America through the design and establishment of a connected system of conservation networks.

Wildwest is dedicated to protecting and restoring forests, wild lands, watersheds and wildlife in the northern Rockies bioregion.

WildEarth Guardians Santa Fe, NM www.wildearthguardians.org WildEarth Guardians protects and restores wildlife, wild places and wild rivers in the American West.

Wilderness Watch Missoula, MT www.wildernesswatch.org Wilderness Watch is a national organization whose sole focus is the preservation and proper stewardship of lands and rivers already included in the National Wilderness Preservation System and the National Wild & Scenic Rivers System.

Wild Lands CPR Valhalla Wilderness Society

Western North Carolina Alliance

New Denver, BC www.savespiritbear.org

Asheville, NC www.wnca.org

VWS works to preserve large intact ecosystems and promote better conservation practices on behalf of biodiversity and the well being of society.

WNCA promotes stewardship and caring for the natural environment to preserve our land, water and air resources.

Ventana Wilderness Alliance Santa Cruz, CA www.ventanawild.org VWA works to protect, enhance, preserve and restore the wilderness qualities and biodiversity of public lands within California’s northern Santa Lucia Mountains and the Big Sur coast.

16 Biodiversity

Western Wildlife Conservancy Salt Lake City, UT www.westwildcon.org WWC works to restore and protect native wildlife and wildlife habitat in the intermountain West through research, education and advocacy.

Missoula, MT www.wildlandscpr.org Wild Lands CPR works to protect and revive wild places by promoting watershed restoration through road removal, preventing new road construction and stopping off-road vehicle abuse.

Wildsight Kimberly, BC www.wildsight.ca Wildsight works to protect biodiversity and encourage sustainable communities in Canada’s Columbia and southern Rocky Mountains.

Wyoming Wilderness Association Sheridan, WY www.wildwyo.org WWA seeks to protect wild watersheds, intact ecosystems, old-growth forests, important wildlife habitat and migration corridors – wild landscapes that truly deserve lasting protection as wilderness.

Yaak Valley Forest Council Troy, MT www.yaakvalley.org Comprised of residents of Lincoln County, Montana, YVFC provides a unified voice for the protection of the last remaining cores of roadless land in the northern reaches of the Kootenai National Forest’s Yaak Valley.

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative Canmore, AB www.y2y.net Y2Y combines science with stewardship to ensure that the world-renowned wilderness, wildlife, native plants and natural processes of the Yellowstone-to-Yukon region continue to function as an interconnected web of life capable of supporting the natural and human communities that reside within it.

Za Zemiata Sofia, Bulgaria www.zazemiata.org

taking the sweat out of sweatshops patagonia and corporate social responsibility You’ve probably heard the term sweatshop and read about the dismal working conditions in garment factories from Asia to the Americas – factories with interminable workweeks, subminimum wages, no overtime pay, unsafe working conditions and even child labor.

You’ve likely seen the names of some of the biggest apparel and footwear brands in the world associated with some of the most disheartening examples of these kinds of abuses.

At Patagonia, we’re working hard to do something about it. We’ve always tried to work with factories that share our values of integrity and environmentalism. And we’ve done a pretty good job. But we’ve also found that working conditions must be monitored.

To that end, we have on staff a full-time social responsibility manager and have developed a code of conduct posted in all our factories that lays out our expectations as to what we consider safe, fair, legal and humane working conditions. We perform regular third-party factory audits, collaborate with other apparel companies doing business in the same factories and belong to several organizations, such as the Fair Labor Association (fairlabor.org), that work to improve conditions in the apparel and footwear industries.

Social responsibility is also about educating ourselves. This year we held a formal two-day training for all Patagonia employees who visit our factories on their roles in our corporate social responsibility program. The training was conducted by Verité, an international nonprofit social auditing, training and capacity-building organization. Their knowledge of the code is helping Patagonia employees to identify workplace issues and report them to our social responsibility manager.

While there are many challenges and things move at an inherently slow pace, we are making headway. For more details, visit: www.patagonia.com/footprint. Scroll down to the Footprint Library on the right and click on the PDF titled, “Corporate Social Responsibility.”

Photo: Sewing line at the Supertex factory, which makes several types of clothing for Patagonia in Colombia. Nicole Bassett

Za Zemiata works to combat the exploitation of people and nature.

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concerning the customer company campaigns

Patagonia has many ways to reach customers – our stores, Web site, emails, catalogs and beyond – and each year we use these platforms to highlight critical environmental issues. We hope to not only sound the alarm, but also to engage and empower people to be part of the solution.

This year, we finished our ocean campaign, helped push for permanent protection in the Arctic and launched an initiative to connect North America’s wild lands.

Oceans as Wilderness In July 2007, we wrapped up our 18-month campaign to highlight the state of our oceans and press for solutions to a marine environment on the brink. We focused on three critical issues: habitat destruction, contamination and unsustainable fishing practices. We urged our customers to support the reauthorization of the Magnuson-Stevens Act, the primary law governing fishing practices in U.S. waters.

With their help, the act was signed into law in early 2007. Following that victory, we focused on the worst mercury-producing chlorine factories, a primary link to mercury pollution in the seafood chain. In California, we helped support an “Ocean Flotilla” of bills that pushed the envelope on what is possible for ocean protection. Our action alerts for these three issues produced more than 15,000 letters, postcards and emails urging the strongest protection possible for our oceans.

Our customers worldwide also bought more than 40,000 fundraising T-shirts. They yielded $210,000, which we divided among Oceana, the Marine Fish 18 A coastal grizzly greets the dawn in Katmai National Park. Alaska. Barry & Cathy Beck

Conservation Network, Surfrider Foundation Japan and the Association to Protect Yaeyama-Shiraho Sea. Is There No Refuge from Big Oil? During fall 2007, we turned our attention to one of our passions – the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Our goal was, and still is, to help permanently protect its 1.5 million-acre coastal plain. Located in the northeastern corner of Alaska, the refuge is an unparalleled landscape of rugged mountains, thick forests, wild rivers and vast tundra. But it’s also on the oil industry’s wish list for drilling, despite estimates that doing so would yield less oil than the U.S. consumes in one year and forever damage a national treasure.

To keep “America’s Serengeti” pristine, we partnered with Alaska Wilderness League (see sidebar on page 42) to gain support for the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act, which would designate the coastal plain as wilderness. The act was introduced into Congress in 2007, but has not passed. Our campaign generated more than 10,000 messages to Congress and raised more than $20,000 through T-shirt sales and events to support the league’s work.

Freedom to Roam Climate change affects not only the wild places we love, but the animals that live in and depend on them. Pronghorn, grizzlies, caribou and elk are just a few of the iconic species losing ground as ecosystems shift due to climate change, while cities,

highways and fences fragment territory and block migration necessary for survival. If this pattern persists, scientists predict that as many as one quarter of the large mammals on this continent will be extinct by the beginning of the next century.

Freedom to Roam seeks to create and protect “wildways,” or corridors, in North America to help animals survive, while also allowing people to recreate, ranch and roam in those corridors. It focuses on the Pacific Crest, the Continental Divide and the Appalachians, as well as smaller, but equally important, linkages.

Freedom to Roam is organized as a coalition of businesses (including Patagonia, as founder), environmental groups and recreation organizations working together.

We highlighted the issue in our Heart of Winter 2008 catalog with two essays, and in our spring catalog with another. We created a slideshow on our website of animals and areas in need of protection, and are selling a fundraising T-shirt to reclaim the California grizzly as an icon of wild hope.

Our efforts this year on behalf of oceans, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and species that need Freedom to Roam, total $532,652.

Freedom to Roam will continue for as long as it takes to succeed. Stay tuned at patagonia.com/ftr.

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Water / Marine Water, the resource upon which all life depends, covers almost three-quarters of the planet.

Throughout the history of the natural world, water sources have been the centers of life, providing habitat and sustenance for animals and plants alike. The groups that follow are doing important work to protect our waters – rivers, oceans, wetlands, aquifers and vernal pools – from the destructive effects of damming, diversion, development and pollution. Total given in this category in fiscal year 2008: $599,515.

Aquatic Protection Agency

Boquet River Association

Center for a Sustainable Coast, Inc.

Chattooga Conservancy

Santa Cruz, CA www.aquaticprotection.org

Willsboro, NY www.boquetriver.org

Saint Simons Island, GA www.sustainablecoast.org

Clayton, GA www.chattoogariver.org

APA seeks to protect fragile marine ecosystems through education, outreach, research and development, and in-field programs that detect and eliminate illegal toxic pollution.

The Boquet River Association is dedicated to enhancing the quality of water and life in the Boquet watershed, discussing and acting upon issues related to land use, pollution, in-stream and riparian species and habitats, recreation and the economy.

Center for a Sustainable Coast works to protect, conserve, restore and sustain coastal Georgia’s vital natural, cultural and economic resources.

CC exists to protect, promote and restore the natural ecological integrity of the Chattooga River watershed ecosystem.

Center for Environmental Law and Policy

Clark Fork Coalition

Bronx River Alliance

Seattle, WA www.celp.org

Au Sable River Association Elizabethtown, NY www.ausableriver.org The Au Sable River Association is a watershed association dedicated to the protection and enhancement of the natural and cultural resources of the Au Sable River watershed.

Big Hole Watershed Committee

Spotlight: Save The Waves Coalition Patagonia grant recipient Save The Waves Coalition had a busy year in Chile working to protect that country’s coastal waters from various sources of pollution, and it was rewarded with a hard-won victory. The group, which is dedicated to preserving the world’s surf spots and their surrounding environments, successfully opposed a proposal to build a 1-kilometer pipeline that would have dumped sewage just offshore the main surfing and recreational beach in downtown Pichilemu – Chile’s Surf City. Thanks to its efforts, and those of Chilean surfer-activists, a tertiary treatment facility that adequately treats the town’s wastewater will be built in another location several kilometers away.

The group also has been fighting pulp mill pollution along the coast south of Santiago. Working with Fiscalía del Medio Ambiente, a group of Chilean environmental lawyers, it has held workshops to inform local fishermen, surfers, public servants and other Chilean coastal dwellers as to their rights and duties when affected by pulp mill waste and dislocation from pipeline construction. The two groups are closely monitoring the construction of a massive pipeline that will dump forest industry waste into the ocean. They’re using legal action, conducting media tours, documenting the construction and testing water quality to oppose it.

In addition to its many efforts in Chile, the group produced a short documentary film, titled Pulp, Poo and Perfection,, which has been featured in 11 international film festivals and on Chilean national television. Save The Waves is also collaborating on a longer film investigating the pulp mill problem, due for release in late 2008.

Photos: Save The Waves Coalition works to protect waves, beaches and water quality in Chile. (left) Chilean lefthander. (right) Protest against ocean dumping. Chile. Will Henry

Alabama Rivers Alliance

Amigos Bravos

Birmingham, AL www.alabamarivers.org

Taos, NM www.amigosbravos.org

ARA works to achieve clean, healthy watershed ecosystems and healthy communities through policy advocacy, restoration planning, grassroots organizing and watershed education.

Amigos Bravos is a river conservation organization guided by social justice principles and dedicated to preserving and restoring the ecological and cultural integrity of New Mexico’s waters.

Alaska Marine Conservation Council

Anacostia Watershed Society

Anchorage, AK www.akmarine.org

Bladensburg, MD www.anacostiaws.org

AMCC is dedicated to protecting the natural diversity and integrity of Alaska’s marine ecosystem by working with coastal communities whose well-being depends on healthy oceans.

Anacostia Watershed Society works to make the Anacostia and its tributaries swimmable and fishable, to restore and protect its local environment for the health and enjoyment of everyone in its community, and to bring together people across all walks of life to achieve this vision.

American Whitewater Cullowhee, NC www.americanwhitewater.org American Whitewater seeks to conserve and restore America’s whitewater resources and enhance opportunities to enjoy them safely.

Apalachicola Riverkeeper Apalachicola, FL www.apalachicolariverkeeper.org Apalachicola Riverkeeper is an advocacy organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Florida’s most endangered river and estuary – the Apalachicola – including its tributaries.

Butte, MT www.bhwc.org The Big Hole Committee seeks understanding of the Big Hole River and agreement among individuals and groups with diverse viewpoints on water use and management in the Big Hole watershed.

Blue Ocean Institute East Norwich, NY www.blueocean.org Blue Ocean seeks to foster a closer relationship between people and the sea through art, science and literature.

Boardman River Project Traverse City, MI www.gtrcf.org The Boardman River Project provides conservation education and land management assistance in the Boardman River watershed.

Bronx, NY www.bronxriver.org BRA acts as a coordinated voice for the Bronx River and works with public and private partners to protect, improve and restore the river corridor and greenway to be healthy ecological, recreational, educational and economic resources for the Bronx communities.

Cahaba River Society Birmingham, AL www.cahabariversociety.org Cahaba River Society works to restore and protect the Cahaba River watershed and its rich diversity of life.

California Trout, Inc. San Francisco, CA www.caltrout.org CalTrout was the nation’s first statewide conservation group supported by trout fishermen with an altruistic goal: to protect and restore trout and the beautiful places where they live.

CELP works to protect Washington’s waterways, promote sustainable water management and implement water-resource restoration strategies.

The Clark Fork Coalition is dedicated to protecting and restoring the Clark Fork River basin, a 22,000-square-mile area draining western Montana and northern Idaho.

Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies

Clean Water for North Carolina, Inc.

Silverton, CO www.snowstudies.org

Asheville, NC www.cwfnc.org

The Center for Snow & Avalanche Studies enhances the interdisciplinary investigation of the snow system’s behavior and role in human/ environment relationships by offering resources, people, information and facilities for field-based research and education.

CWF-NC works to empower citizens and organizations throughout North Carolina to protect their communities from ground- and surface-water pollution and to advocate for environmental justice.

Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute Santa Barbara, CA www.cimwi.org CIMWI is committed to aiding and rescuing marine animals and wildlife affected by natural and unnatural causes.

Charles River Watershed Association

Campaign to Safeguard America’s Waters

Weston, MA www.charlesriver.org

Haines, AK www.earthisland.org/c-saw

CRWA uses science, advocacy and the law to protect, preserve and enhance the Charles River and its watershed.

C-SAW seeks to stop the authorization of “mixing zones” (dilution-pollution areas within public waters) and the dumping of polluted waste streams from cruise ships.

Missoula, MT www.clarkfork.org

Columbia Riverkeeper Hood River, OR www.columbiariverkeeper.org Columbia Riverkeeper exists to protect the Columbia River basin and all life connected to it.

Connecticut Fund for the Environment New Haven, CT www.cfenv.org CFE utilizes law, science and education to better air and water quality, control toxic contamination, minimize the adverse impacts of highways and traffic congestion, protect public water supplies, and preserve the open space and wetlands so crucial to both the state’s citizens and its wildlife.

WATER / MARINE

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Connecticut River Watershed Council

Earthplace

Friends of the Kaw

Glen Canyon Institute

Heal the Ocean

Idaho Rivers United

Middletown, CT www.ctriver.org

Westport, CT www.earthplace.org

Lawrence, KS www.kansasriver.org

Salt Lake City, UT www.glencanyon.org

Santa Barbara, CA www.healtheocean.org

Boise, ID www.idahorivers.org

The Connecticut River Watershed Council works to protect the watershed from source to sea – from alpine forests to tidal estuaries, rural farmlands to urban riverfronts, spotted salamanders to bald eagles, and mussels to salmon.

Earthplace seeks to educate the community about nature and the environment with a 62-acre wildlife sanctuary, interactive natural history museum, wildlife and public nature programs and events.

Friends of the Kaw works for the preservation, rehabilitation and protection of the Kansas River watershed, including its water quality and wildlife habitat.

Glen Canyon Institute exists to restore a healthy Colorado River through Glen Canyon.

Heal the Ocean focuses on wastewater infrastructure – sewers and septic systems – as well as other municipal operations that contribute to ocean pollution.

Idaho Rivers United is a conservation organization working to protect and restore the rivers of Idaho.

Friends of the River

Reno, NV www.greatbasinwater.net

Conservation Council of North Carolina

Ecology Action Centre

Raleigh, NC www.conservationcouncilnc.org

Halifax, NS www.ecologyaction.ca

CCNC works to protect, preserve and enhance the quality of life and environment of North Carolina.

EAC works to advocate, educate and develop programs that respect and protect nature in Nova Scotia.

Friends of the River works to protect and restore California’s free-flowing rivers and watersheds by educating the public, media and government officials on river conservation issues.

Cook InletKeeper

Environmental Defense Center

Friends of the San Juans

Homer, AK www.inletkeeper.org

Santa Barbara, CA www.edcnet.org

Friday Harbor, WA www.sanjuans.org

Cook InletKeeper monitors habitat destruction and pollution in the watershed surrounding Alaska’s Cook Inlet.

The Environmental Defense Center protects and enhances the local environment through education, advocacy and legal action.

Delaware Riverkeeper Network

Fiscalia del Medio Ambiente

Bristol, PA www.delawareriverkeeper.org

Santiago, Chile www.fima.cl

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network stands as a vigilant protector and defender of the river, its tributaries and its watershed, committed to restoring the natural balance where it has been lost and ensuring its preservation where it still exists.

FIMA works to expand and define Chilean environmental policy and reduce or eliminate environmental degradation such as loss of biodiversity, deforestation, air pollution, mining and smelting contamination, toxic waste pollution, and contamination of water supplies.

Earthjustice Hawaii Honolulu, HI www.earthjustice.org Earthjustice is a public-interest law firm dedicated to protecting the magnificent places, natural resources and wildlife of the earth and to defending the right of people to a healthy environment.

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WATER / MARINE

Friends of Casco Bay South Portland, ME www.friendsofcascobay.org Friends of Casco Bay is a marine stewardship organization working to improve and protect the environmental health of Casco Bay.

Sacramento, CA www.friendsoftheriver.org

Great Basin Water Network, Inc.

GBWN works to promote and protect sustainable water use, natural resources and the public interest through communication, coordination, research, science, education, litigation and advocacy on water in the extended Great Basin.

Great River Greening St. Paul, MN www.greatrivergreening.org

Friends of the San Juans is a citizen-based organization that applies science, law, policy and citizen action to improve stewardship of public lands on the San Juan Islands.

GRG restores endangered natural areas and open spaces in the greater Twin Cities by engaging individuals and communities in stewardship of the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix River valleys and watersheds.

Friends of the Santa Clara River

Green Mountain Conservation Group

Newbury Park, CA www.fscr.org

Effington, NH www.gmcg.org

Friends of the Santa Clara River is a publicinterest organization dedicated to the protection, enhancement and management of the resources of the Santa Clara River, which flows approximately 100 miles from Acton, California, to the Pacific Ocean.

Green Mountain Conservation Group works to protect and conserve the natural resources of the Ossipee watershed, the headwaters of New Hampshire’s largest aquifer.

Georgia River Network

Franklin, TN www.harpethriver.org

Athens, GA www.garivers.org Georgia River Network is working to ensure a clean-water legacy by engaging and empowering Georgians to protect and restore their rivers from the mountains to the coast.

Harpeth River Watershed Association

The Harpeth River Watershed Association seeks to preserve and restore the ecological health of the Harpeth River, which runs through six counties in Tennessee.

Hokugen No Dugong Wo Mimamoru Kai Hino-shi, Tokyo, Japan http://sea-dugong.org Hokugen No Dugong Wo Mimamoru Kai is dedicated to saving the dugong, a sea mammal whose habitat is threatened by construction of a U.S. military base on Okinawa.

Housatonic River Initiative Lenoxdale, MA www.housatonicriver.org The Housatonic River Initiative is a coalition of Berkshire County residents working to reclaim the Housatonic River system from years of neglect and decades of toxic PCB contamination.

Hyde Mountain Vista Group Prescott, AZ 928-925-2321 Hyde Mountain Vista Group is dedicated to preserving diversity, ecological integrity, historic value and undeveloped nature of public and private lands in and around the Santa Maria and Juniper mountains of central Arizona.

Hydropower Reform Coalition Bellingham, WA www.hydroreform.org HRC works to reform national hydropower policies and to achieve improvements to rivers altered by hydropower dams.

Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas

Komoriuta No Sato Itsuki Wo Hagukumu Seiyu Kawabegawa Wo Mamoru Fukuoka No Kai Fukuoka, Japan 092-725-4390 This group works to protect the Kawabegawa River from the construction of new dams.

Buenos Aires, Argentina www.icb.org.ar

Kumagara Kara Subeteno Dam Wo Nakushite Ayu No Taigun Wo Yobimodosu Kai

Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas is dedicated to the conservation of whales and their habitat through research and education.

Kumamoto, Japan 092-725-4390

Jah Trout Productions Jackson, WY www.jahtrout.com Jah Trout seeks to contribute to the protection of native salmonids and the conservation of coldwater fisheries around the world by using its innovative and informative filmmaking for the purpose of fundraising and increasing public awareness.

Karuk Tribe of California Happy Camp, CA www.karuk.us The Karuk Tribe of California works to protect, promote and preserve the cultural and natural resources upon which the Karuk people depend.

Klamath Riverkeeper Orleans, CA www.klamathriver.org Klamath Riverkeeper exists to defend, protect and restore the Klamath River and its watersheds.

This group encourages citizens to work toward the removal of unnecessary dams on the Kumagawa and Kawabegawa rivers.

Little Tennessee Watershed Association Franklin, NC www.itwa.org The Little Tennessee Watershed Association exists to protect and restore the water quality and habitat of the Little Tennessee River and its tributaries upstream from the Fontana reservoir.

Living Oceans Society Sointula, BC www.livingoceans.org LOS works to ensure the long-term health of the ocean and coastal communities on the Pacific Coast of Canada.

Oceana observers release a loggerhead caught on a longliner’s hook in the Mediterranean.

Collin Daugherty

Marin Audubon Society Mill Valley, CA www.marinaudubon.org MAS works to conserve and restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds and other wildlife and their habitats, for the benefit of humanity and biological diversity.

Marine Fish Conservation Network Washington, DC www.conservefish.org MFCN is dedicated to promoting the longterm sustainability of marine fish, using its distinct voice and sound science to educate policy-makers, fishermen and the public about the need for sound conservation and management practices.

Living Rivers Moab, UT www.livingrivers.org Living Rivers promotes river restoration, seeking to revive the natural habitat and spirit of rivers by undoing the extensive damage done by dams, diversions and pollution on the Colorado Plateau.

Matilija Coalition Ventura, CA http://pages.sbcglobal.net/pjenkin/matilija The Matilija Coalition is made up of environmental, conservation, surfing, sport-fishing and river groups, as well as businesses, working to restore the Ventura River watershed through the removal of Matilija Dam.

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23

Nagaragawa Kakouseki Kensetsu Ni Hantai Suru Kai

Obirame Restoration Group

Prairie Rivers Network

Reef Check Foundation

River Network

San Diego Coastkeeper

Save the Waves Coalition

Hokkaido, Japan 81-136-44-2472

Champaign, IL www.prairierivers.org

Pacific Palisades, CA www.reefcheck.org

Portland, OR www.rivernetwork.org

San Diego, CA www.sdbaykeeper.org

Davenport, CA www.savethewaves.org

This group is fighting a dam on the Nagaragawa River, working to restore the river ecosystem to its condition before the dam flood gates were opened.

The Obirame Restoration Group works to restore and rehabilitate native populations of Obirame (Japanese huchen) in the Shirebetsu River in collaboration with anglers, researchers and citizens.

The Reef Check Foundation is an international organization dedicated to conservation of tropical coral reefs and California rocky reefs.

RN seeks to help people understand, protect and restore rivers and their watersheds by providing organizational, technical and networking assistance to those working for watershed protection at the local level.

San Diego Coastkeeper protects the region’s bays, beaches, watersheds and ocean for the people and wildlife that depend on them.

Save the Waves is an environmental coalition dedicated to preserving the world’s surf spots and educating the public about their value.

Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper

Sea Shepherd Conservation Society

Natural Resources Council of Maine

Oceana

Prairie Rivers Network strives to protect the rivers and streams of Illinois and to promote the lasting health and beauty of watershed communities by providing information, sound science and hands-on assistance to help individuals and community groups become effective river conservation leaders.

River Policy Network

Santa Barbara, CA www.sbck.org

Malibu, CA www.seashepherd.org

Augusta, ME www.nrcm.org

Washington, DC www.oceana.org

ChannelKeeper works to restore the quality of the Santa Barbara Channel’s waters through action, advocacy, education and enforcement.

Sea Shepherd uses direct-action tactics to investigate, document and take action, when necessary, to expose and confront illegal activities on the high seas that negatively affect the health of the ocean.

Gifu, Japan http://nagara.ktroad.ne.jp/

Cheryl Gill of Utah River Council paddles the Jordan River near Lehi, Utah. Marjorie Gendler

NRCM works to protect, conserve and restore Maine’s environment through advocacy, legal defense and education.

Mattole Restoration Council

Naubesatuck Watershed Council

Petrolia, CA www.mattole.org

Mansfield Center, CT http://nwc.ctgaia.net

MRC works to restore natural systems in the Mattole River watershed, especially forests, fisheries, soils and native plant and animal communities.

Midwest Environmental Advocates Madison, WI www.midwestadvocates.org MEA provides legal and technical support to grassroots groups working for environmental justice in the western Great Lakes region.

Mogami-Ogunigawa No “Shin No Chisui” Wo Kangaeru Kai Yamagata, Japan www.ogunigawa.org Save the River Ogunigawa exists to save Mogami-Oguni River, one of the best rivers in Yamagata Prefecture, from a dam project.

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Naubesatuck Watershed Council exists to protect and enhance the beauty, biotic diversity, ecological interactions and structures and processes of three river systems – the Fenton, Mount Hope and Natchaug.

New-Old Ways Wholistically Emerging Santa Rosa, CA 707-537-8924 NOWWE is a watershed protection organization providing long-term protection, restoration and stewardship of natural resources in the Mark West Creek watershed.

North East Trees Los Angeles, CA www.northeasttrees.org North East Trees conducts water-testing workshops to teach stormwater sampling at street locations that empty into the Los Angeles River and Ballona Creek.

Oceana campaigns to protect and restore the world’s oceans, seeking to reduce pollution and to prevent the irreversible collapse of fish populations, marine mammals and other sea life.

Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper Statesboro, GA www.ogeecheecanoocheeriverkeeper.org Ogeechee-Canoochee Riverkeeper is dedicated to protecting, preserving and ensuring clean water throughout the entire Ogeechee basin.

Penobscot River Restoration Trust Augusta, ME www.penobscotriver.org The Penobscot River Restoration Trust works to restore Maine’s largest watershed, the Penobscot River.

Potomac Riverkeeper Washington, DC www.potomacriverkeeper.org Potomac Riverkeeper is dedicated to protecting and restoring water quality in the Potomac River and its tributaries through community action and enforcement.

Prince William Soundkeeper Cordova, AK www.pwsoundkeeper.org Prince William Soundkeeper works to protect water quality and the life it sustains in the Prince William Sound ecosystem.

Pro Peninsula San Diego, CA www.propeninsula.org Pro Peninsula is dedicated to building strong communities on the Baja California peninsula for long-term protection of the environment.

Puget Soundkeeper Alliance Seattle, WA www.pugetsoundkeeper.org PSA works to protect and preserve the waters of Puget Sound by tracking down and stopping the discharge of pollutants.

Raritan Baykeeper, Inc. Keyport, NJ www.nynjbaykeeper.org Raritan Baykeeper works to protect, preserve and restore the ecological integrity and productivity of the Hudson-Raritan Estuary, its tributaries and watershed.

Reef Relief Key West, FL www.reefrelief.org Reef Relief is a global grassroots membership organization dedicated to preserving and protecting living coral reef ecosystems.

Restore Hetch Hetchy Sonora, CA www.hetchhetchy.org RHH exists to restore Yosemite National Park’s Hetch Hetchy Valley and its associated natural resources.

Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance Seward, AK www.rbca-alaska.org The Resurrection Bay Conservation Alliance exists to enjoy and advocate for healthy water, land and air in and around Resurrection Bay.

River Alliance of Wisconsin Madison, WI www.wisconsinrivers.org The River Alliance of Wisconsin advocates for the protection, enhancement and restoration of Wisconsin’s rivers and watersheds.

Osaka, Japan www.mm289.com/RPN RPN uses sustainable river policies originating outside of Japan, to show what can be done and to provide Japanese citizens opportunities to address river management from a place of neutrality.

River Wranglers Silver Springs, NV www.riverwranglers.com River Wranglers works to conserve Nevada rivers through community programs, projects and education.

Riverkeeper Tarrytown, NY www.riverkeeper.org Riverkeeper exists to protect the ecological, commercial and recreational integrity of the Hudson River.

Ryuiki No Shizen Wo Kangaeru Network Hokkaido, Japan 0139-65-6860 Ryuiki No Shizen Wo Kangaeru Network works to protect the watershed ecosystem in Hiyamagun, Hokkaido, by opposing irresponsible logging of the forest and construction on the rivers.

Santa Catalina Island Conservancy Long Beach, CA www.catalinaconservancy.org

Sheepscot Valley Conservation Association

The Catalina Island Conservancy seeks to be a responsible steward of its lands through a balance of conservation, education and research.

Newcastle, ME www.sheepscot.org

Sarufutsu Ito No Kai Soya-gun, Hokkaido, Japan www.itounosato.jp Sarufutsu Ito No Kai is dedicated to protecting the river ecosystem in Sarufutsu Village by preserving native fish and creating a community in which both locals and visitors can enjoy the river.

Save Our Wild Salmon Coalition Seattle, WA www.wildsalmon.org Save Our Wild Salmon is a nationwide coalition of conservation organizations, commercial and sport fishing associations, businesses, river groups, and taxpayer and clean energy advocates working collectively to restore healthy, sustainable wild salmon to the rivers, streams and oceans of the Pacific salmon states.

SVCA seeks to conserve and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Sheepscot Watershed, which encompasses 320-square miles in mid-coast Maine.

Shitara Dam No Kensetsu Chushi Wo Motomeru Kai Aichi, Japan www.tees.ne.jp/~ichinok7 This group is working to stop the construction of Shitara Dam.

SOS Loire Vivante Le Puy, France www.rivernet.org/soslv.htm SOS Loire Vivante is fighting dams on the Loire River and elsewhere in Europe, and opposing any project damaging biodiversity in and around the Loire.

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25

Soundkeeper, Inc.

letters from the field

Norwalk, CT www.soundkeeper.org Soundkeeper is dedicated to the protection and enhancement of the biological, physical and chemical integrity of Long Island Sound and its watershed.

South Carolina Coastal Conservation League Charleston, SC www.coastalconservationleague.org SC Coastal Conservation League works to protect the natural environment of the South Carolina coastal plain and to enhance the quality of life of its coastal communities.

South Yuba River Citizens League

The Sugar Pine Foundation

The 2008 field season is rapidly approaching, though it’s hard to tell with over 10 feet of snow in our front yard. This is the year we have been waiting for: We get to plant sugar pine seedlings capable of surviving white pine blister rust.

Four years ago we started the Sugar Pine Foundation because sugar pines were disappearing from the Lake Tahoe Basin. While larger trees can survive the fungus for a while, the younger generation was being decimated. Fortunately, some sugar pines have a gene that enables them to resist the rust, an invasive and nonnative fungus. The U.S. Forest Service eagerly offered to screen any trees we wanted to test if we would do the climbing. So, in 2005, we began harvesting cones with seed from 100 sugar pines. By the time we had used up our vacation and burned through our cash, Patagonia came through with a grant. It enabled us to set up a GIS database to record the location of resistant trees with enough left over for some tree-climbing gear.

Nothing in restoration forestry happens very quickly, but Patagonia was patient for results. And patience paid off. In the last four years, we’ve harvested seeds from 19 trees resistant to white pine blister rust and now have over 3,000 seedlings ready for our first restoration project – replanting in the Angora fire area near South Lake Tahoe.

Now that we’re in a position to help reforest that area, we are going to direct our attention to high-elevation pines. With support from our partners at Patagonia, I think we will succeed.

– John Pickett, Founder of The Sugar Pine Foundation

Nevada City, CA www.yubariver.org SYRCL exists to restore the fisheries and other riverine functions in the Yuba River, while strengthening the economy of its rural community whose future depends on these resources.

St. Johns Riverkeeper Jacksonville, FL www.stjohnsriverkeeper.org St. Johns Riverkeeper uses citizen-based advocacy to work on behalf of its community for clean and healthy waters in the St. Johns River, its tributaries and its wetlands.

Stroud Water Research Center Avondale, PA www.stroudcenter.org/about/contact.htm Stroud Water Research Center seeks to advance global knowledge and stewardship of freshwater systems through research and education.

Suigen Kaihatsu Mondai Zenkoku Renrakukai Kanagawa, Japan www.suigenren.org This coalition consists of eight river organizations working together to develop strategies and tactics to oppose developers and get the public involved in shaping the government’s waterresource development plan.

Surfrider Foundation Connecticut Chapter New Haven, CT www.surfrider.org/connecticut The Connecticut chapter of Surfrider is dedicated to maintaining and acquiring beach and ocean-access rights, preserving the state’s coastline and improving the quality of Connecticut’s coastal environment.

Surfrider Foundation Europe Biarritz, France www.surfrider-europe.org Surfrider Foundation Europe is dedicated to the protection and preservation of Europe’s ocean, waves and coastlines.

Surfrider Foundation Japan Tokyo, Japan www.surfrider.jp SFJ is dedicated to protecting and preserving oceans, waves and beaches throughout Japan through conservation, activism, research and education programs.

Sustainable Fishery Advocates Santa Cruz, CA www.fishwise.org Sustainable Fishery Advocates seeks to educate consumers, restaurants, distributors and retailers on sustainable fishery issues.

Tahoe Divers Conservancy

Trout Unlimited

WaterWatch of Oregon

Reno, NV 775-544-9109

Arlington, VA www.tu.org

Portland, OR www.waterwatch.org

The Tahoe Diver’s Conservancy is a volunteer organization dedicated to protecting Lake Tahoe and the marine environment of the Sierra Nevada.

Trout Unlimited works to conserve, protect and restore trout and salmon fisheries and their watersheds throughout North America.

Tennessee Clean Water Network

Trout Unlimited – Alaska

WaterWatch promotes water policies for Oregon that provide the quality and quantity of water necessary to support fish, wildlife, recreation, biological diversity, ecological values, public health and a sound economy.

Knoxville, TN www.tcwn.org

Juneau, AK www.tu.org

TCWN works to protect, restore and enhance Tennessee’s waters and the communities that depend on them.

Trout Unlimited – Alaska seeks to preserve, protect and restore wild salmon and trout populations throughout Alaska.

Texas Conservation Alliance

Trout Unlimited – KIAP Chapter

Tyler, TX www.TexasConservationAlliance.org

Hudson, MN www.lambcom.net/kiaptuwish

TCA educates Texans and builds alliances to enhance and sustain wildlife habitat and protect the state’s land, air and water.

The KIAP chapter of Trout Unlimited works to preserve and protect trout, salmon and coldwater resources on the trout streams of Pierce and St. Croix counties in western Wisconsin.

The Nature Conservancy-Saugatuck River Watershed Partnership

Upper Chattahoochee RiverKeeper

Weston, CT www.nature.org

Atlanta, GA www.chattahoochee.org

The partnership works to protect and enhance the health of the Saugatuck River watershed by working collaboratively to link, maintain and restore habitats that support natural biological diversity.

Upper Chattahoochee RiverKeeper works on behalf of the Chattahoochee River, its tributaries and watershed, to restore and preserve their ecological health.

The Open Space Alliance of Santa Cruz Santa Cruz, CA www.santacruzosa.org The Open Space Alliance of Santa Cruz is dedicated to the permanent protection of open space with significant scenic and natural qualities, including rare habitats, farmlands and watersheds in Santa Cruz County.

Utah Rivers Council Salt Lake City, UT www.utahrivers.org Utah Rivers Council seeks to protect and restore Utah’s rivers and clean water sources for people and wildlife.

West Virginia Rivers Coalition Elkins, WV www.wvrivers.org WVRC works for the conservation and restoration of West Virginia’s exceptional rivers and streams.

Western Resource Advocates Salt Lake City, UT www.westernresourceadvocates.org Western Resource Advocates works to promote a clean energy future, restore degraded river systems, protect public lands and promote efficient water use.

Wishtoyo Foundation/Ventura CoastKeeper Ventura, CA www.wishtoyo.org Wishtoyo utilizes traditional Chumash cultural values and practices to foster environmental awareness.

Yakushima Umigame Kan Kagoshima, Japan www.umigame-kan.org Through conservation activities, research and public outreach, Yakushima Umigame Kan works to maintain a healthy sea turtle population in Yakushima Island.

A Good Fit Patagonia is proud to support both groups and individuals on the front lines of grassroots environmental action through clothing donations. This year, we donated over $100,000 worth of gear to more than 800 entities. We gave for fundraisers, helping groups to raise money to further their work. And we donated to people in the field, whose causes vary, but who share a passion for “doing the right thing.” While the work they do is not always glamorous, we take great pleasure in helping them to stay comfortable (and look good) while they’re doing it.

We also pitched in when last year’s fires devastated a number of communities in the western U.S. We rushed clothing to victims of the Angora fire at Lake Tahoe, and to some of those affected by the blazes around San Diego. When a levee broke in Fernley, Nevada, and flooded nearly 300 homes with freezing water, we sent fleece and jackets.

The rewards are many. Often we get a note or an email that tells us the jacket we donated was the prized item at a fundraiser that helped achieve their goal. Or a biologist doing research on the other side of the planet will write to thank us for helping her to keep her mind on her work, not on staying warm and dry. It’s a good fit for a clothing company. We’re glad we can help.

Photo: These sugar pines in Sequoia National Park are faring better than their counterparts around Lake Tahoe, California. Altrendo

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27

this grand show

is eternal

patagonia national park

“This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor is ever rising.

Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming...” ~John Muir I know this grand show. It plays eternally in a land at the end of the earth. It plays where the winds blow birds backwards and the sea carves magnificent fjords at the base of a steppe that rises up for nearly 300,000 square miles. This grand show is Patagonia.

I made my second trip to Patagonia in January of 2007, more than 15 years after my first. But not a day between did I forget this great land of storms. In my early 20s, I spent months climbing, trekking and kayaking around Patagonia. I drank mate and ate wild strawberries. No news, no TV, no electricity, no shower, no TP. It was the time of my life. That trip crystallized my love for the wild and scenic. And this trip, in 2007, celebrated the chord struck then. But this time around, I came not as a climber, but as a volunteer.

Imagine being involved in the creation of Yosemite National Park. We have John Muir to thank for that. Without Muir, I certainly wouldn’t be writing these words today.

In 2004, former Patagonia CEO Kristine Tompkins, through the nonprofit foundation Conservación Patagonica, bought Estancia Valle Chacabuco, a 173,000-acre sheep and cattle ranch. The plan is to use Valle Chacabuco as a link between two existing protected wild lands – Chilean national reserves Jeinimeni and Tamango.

This trifecta that will one day make up Patagonia National Park will be almost the size of our own Yosemite.

But we have work to do before that day arrives. Many years of sheep and cattle ranching, erosion, logging, road building, fire on an apocalyptic scale and the introduction of nonnative plant species have left Valle Chacabuco much worse for wear. And that’s where I came in. As an employee of Patagonia, I took a three-week environmental internship that started in Ventura, Calif., on a chilly January morning and 29 hours later brought me to Valle Chacabuco. I’d come to offer myself up for manual labor along with five of my co-workers. We spent our days removing sections 28 Patagonia employees get the lay of the land at Valle Chacabuco. Patagonia, Chile. Tim Davis

of fence up and down the ranch to restore natural migration corridors for, along with smaller mammals, the guanaco, the camel of Patagonia, and their natural predator, the puma. We pulled heavy, 8-foot-long fence posts sunk five feet in tough and rocky soil. We cut and recycled hundreds upon hundreds of feet of wire. We stacked the posts to be used for firewood.

When not pulling fence, we gathered native seeds to repopulate grasslands devastated by invasive mullen or Scottish thistle, brought to the region in the coats of sheep.

We met former ranchers, now park rangers, who told us tales of their new jobs and responsibilities. One had been a puma tracker, paid to kill the cats that dined on the sheep. Today Daniel Velasquez is still a puma tracker, but now he documents their return and protects them.

John Muir taught me one important lesson: that one person could change the world.

And Daniel Velasquez taught me another: that degraded habitat, flora and fauna could be restored. And so I will always return to Patagonia. Someday, I will hire a horse and ride to the summit bluffs of the restored valley, and I will gaze, without the aid of glass – for the air has no pollution – upon the hundreds of miles of newly created national park. I will study the jagged peaks of the Northern Patagonian Ice Fields and then, with a great deal of satisfaction, I will climb them. It will be the time of my life.

– Rob Bondurant is Patagonia’s vice president of marketing. He joined 11 other Patagonia employees who traveled in two groups to Valle Chacabuco last year. Fiftytwo of us have worked on the park since this program’s inception in 2005.

Call to Action For more information on the effort at Valle Chacabuco, to volunteer your own time or to contribute financially, please visit: conservacionpatagonica.org.

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Forests

Cherokee Forest Voices

Heartwood

Johnson City, TN www.cherokeeforestvoices.org

Alton, IL www.heartwood.org

Cherokee Forest Voices seeks to encourage increased emphasis on the ecological values of the forest.

Heartwood works to protect forests and support community activism on their behalf in the eastern and Midwestern United States through education, advocacy and citizen empowerment.

An aerial view of the Maine Woods, Chilean forests or ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest reveals gruesome wastelands where once there were thriving forest ecosystems. Diverse forests have been

ForestEthics

replaced by tree plantations to be harvested rather than nurtured as living systems. We continue to

San Francisco, CA www.forestethics.org

clearcut our forests at a dizzying rate, seemingly oblivious to the economic and environmental reality that soon we will have no trees left to cut. The organizations that follow are working to stop the destruction of our forestlands before it is too late. Total given in this category in fiscal year 2008: $170,878.

Spotlight: Amis de la Terre Every year, 13 million hectares (approximately 32 million acres) of forests are destroyed, disturbing the lives of some 350 million people and reducing biodiversity worldwide.

France is the biggest European importer of tropical wood, most of it from the Congo Basin in central Africa, and much of the wood sold in French lumber yards these days is derived from threatened or endangered tree species. Many French stores also sell products made with tropical wood that is illegally or unsustainably harvested.

There are alternatives, which Patagonia grant recipient Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth France) is working to encourage. In 2003, Friends of the Earth France (FoE) published the “Good Wood Guide” that advised consumers how to select wood products and also evaluated the buying practices of 10 large French wood suppliers. Since then, FoE has met with these companies to try to help them buy more environmentally sensitive wood. As a result of its work, some major retailers have stopped selling wood from endangered forests.

Going forward, FoE will focus its attention on approximately 20 companies that have not responded to its requests to reveal their wood sources. They will again be asked to inform the public about their supply chains and FoE campaigners will seek to verify their responses. FoE will publish the results on its Web site and organize public actions in front of the worst offenders to attract media attention. The companies that are willing to work to improve their supply chains will also be featured on FoE’s Web site.

Photos: (left) Ancient western cedars on Vancouver Island, Canada. Dan Rafla;; (right) Iroko trees illegally logged in West Africa are sold in Europe for flooring. Flavien

American Lands Alliance

Bergwaldprojekt e.V Germany

Washington, DC www.americanlands.org

Würzburg, Germany www.bergwaldprojekt.de

ALA exists to protect and restore America’s forest ecosystems by providing national leadership, coordination and capacity building for the forest conservation movement.

Bergwaldprojekt organizes volunteer camps in various forest environments in Germany, offering participants the opportunity to contribute to forest protection.

ForestEthics works to protect endangered forests in North America and Chile by determining which forests are endangered, which corporations are purchasing the products of that destruction and, when necessary, holding those companies publicly accountable.

Santa Barbara, CA www.LPFW.org

Forest Watch strives to restore and protect wildlife and wilderness, improve management of public lands, and promote ecological forestry.

Los Padres ForestWatch is a community-based organization leading efforts to protect the Los Padres National Forest and other public lands along California’s Central Coast.

Montreuil, France www.amisdelaterre.org

Columbus, OH www.buckeyeforestcouncil.org

Friends of the Earth France fights against genetically modified organisms, the importation of tropical hardwood, deforestation, loss of biodiversity and for environmental protection.

Buckeye Forest Council is a membership-based organization dedicated to the protection of Ohio’s native forests.

Friends of Saguaro National Park seeks to promote citizen and corporate stewardship to help protect the environmental integrity, preserve the cultural history and enhance the public enjoyment of Saguaro National Park.

Central Coast Forest Watch

Georgia ForestWatch

Santa Cruz, CA 831-426-1697

Ellijay, GA www.gafw.org

CCFW works to protect and restore forest and watershed habitat in the Santa Cruz Mountains for the sake of humans, plants and animals alike.

Georgia ForestWatch works to protect and restore the native ecosystems of Georgia’s Mountain and Piedmont public lands, and to inform the citizens of Georgia about the values of these landscapes.

Created in response to the devastation of a disastrous fire that burned the Cengle – a plateau at the southern foot of Sainte-Victoire mountain – ARPCV promotes reforestation and environmental education.

Klamath Forest Alliance promotes sustainable communities and sustainable ecosystems to defend and protect the biodiversity, wildlife, waters and old-growth forests in the watersheds of the Klamath-Siskiyou area.

Richmond, VT www.forestwatch.org

Buckeye Forest Council

Aix-en-Provence, France http://arpcv.free.fr

Orleans, CA www.klamathforestalliance.org

Los Padres ForestWatch

Amis de la Terre France

Association Pour le Reboisement et la Protection du Cengle Sainte-Victoire

Klamath Forest Alliance

Forest Watch

Friends of Saguaro National Park Tucson, AZ www.friendsofsaguaro.org

letters from the field

Louisiana Environmental Action Network Baton Rouge, LA www.leanweb.org LEAN seeks to foster communication and cooperation among individuals and organizations to address the environmental problems of Louisiana.

Nettairin Kodo Network Tokyo, Japan http://jatan.org JATAN is committed to the conservation of tropical rainforests worldwide.

Salmon Run

You make a living by what you get, but you make a life by what you give. – Winston Churchill Many of us came to work at Patagonia (me, 22 years ago) because of our passion for the environment. So to be able to contribute on a deeper level at work is a privilege that makes work life a rich, satisfying experience. Two years ago, I volunteered to coordinate the Salmon Run, an annual 5K running event put on by Patagonia to raise money and awareness for a local, nonprofit environmental group. For the second year in a row we chose as our beneficiary Los Padres ForestWatch, which works to protect the nearby Los Padres National Forest from oil and gas development, logging, mining and other incompatible activities. Working with 24 Patagonia employees and 44 generous sponsors and artists who donated their products and artwork for our Salmon Run auction, we raised more than $12,000 to boost the group’s work. Now in its 14th year, the Salmon Run is Ventura County’s largest running event, with more than 400 participants. We have Patagonia to thank for this. Ours is not just a business that happens to be based in Ventura, but an integral part of this community; a family that is active and involved in local environmental issues. To witness the amount of energy and enthusiasm on race day was so rewarding; to turn over a large check to Los Padres ForestWatch on behalf of Patagonia was a huge honor.

– Terri Laine, Patagonia Visual Design Department Photo: The fleet of foot helped to raise more than $12,000 this year for Los Padres ForestWatch at the Patagonia-sponsored Salmon Run. Jim Little

FORESTS

31

Closing The Loop We’ve set a challenging goal for ourselves at Patagonia. By 2010, we want to be able to recycle all of our clothing at the end of its useful life. We started down this path three years ago with the launch of our Common Threads Garment Recycling Program, through which our customers could return their worn-out Capilene® Performance Baselayers to us for recycling. Since then, we’ve expanded our take-back program to include Patagonia® cotton T-shirts, Patagonia fleece and Polartec®-branded fleece from any other manufacturer and a growing number of polyester shells. A couple of our nylon products are recyclable as well.

The design of a product directly affects what happens to it when it wears out. So we’re trying to make ours with a single type of fiber to facilitate recycling. A good example is our Eco Rain Shell. We used to make the shell out of nylon, the barrier out of polyurethane and the lining out of polyester. Now we make all of its components out of polyester.

Come fall 2008, we’ll be about 45% of the way to our goal. Wetsuits will probably take longer, and packs and luggage too, because we can’t yet get the quality we want without using several different materials. But we’re working on it.

Our Common Threads Recycling Program is an effort to take responsibility for our products at the end of their useful lives, keeping them from the landfill and the incinerator, reducing the use of energy and the need for virgin materials. We figure it’s the responsible thing to do.

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FORESTS

Northwest Connections

Southeast Alaska Conservation Council

Umpqua Watersheds

Wildwest Institute

Swan Valley, MT www.northwestconnections.org

Juneau, AK www.seacc.org

Roseburg, OR www.umpqua-watersheds.org

Missoula, MT www.wildwestinstitute.org

Northwest Connections engages in communitybased projects that assist land managers and private landowners to better understand, conserve and restore critical habitats in the Swan Valley and surrounding areas.

SEACC is devoted to protecting the forest, fish and wildlife of Southeast Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, the largest ancient temperate rainforest on earth.

Umpqua Watersheds seeks to protect and restore watersheds in the Umpqua River-basin and beyond.

Wildwest Institute exists to protect and restore forests, wild lands, watersheds and wildlife in the northern Rockies bioregion.

Utah Environmental Congress

Yukon Conservation Society

Salt Lake City, UT www.uec-utah.org

Whitehorse, YT www.yukonconservation.org

SAFC is a collaboration of land conservation groups working to achieve broad scale, permanent protection of the natural and cultural heritage of the southern Appalachian region.

UEC works to reclaim and act upon our ancestral responsibility to the land and bring people together to engage in genuine protection of living forest systems that provide islands of refuge in Utah’s desert country.

YCS is dedicated to pursuing healthy ecosystems throughout the Yukon and beyond, recognizing that human well-being is ultimately dependent upon fully functioning ecosystems.

Sugar Pine Foundation

Virginia Forest Watch

South Lake Tahoe, CA www.sugarpinefoundation.org

Nickelsville, VA www.virginiaforestwatch.org

The Sugar Pine Foundation works to restore the natural regeneration of sugar pines and western white pines in the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Virginia Forest Watch seeks to maintain and restore the natural ecology and biodiversity of woodlands across Virginia through education and citizen participation.

Every year, 20 billion catalogs are produced in the United States. Most of them end up in a landfill – and until recently, almost all of them came entirely from the destruction of virgin forests.

Western Environmental Law Center

Since 2004, my group, ForestEthics, has been working to change the way that catalogs are produced. Through public campaigning and corporate outreach, we’ve convinced companies such as Limited Brands (Victoria’s Secret), Williams-Sonoma, Dell, L.L. Bean and others to adopt policies and practices that are more ecologically sustainable.

Ozark Trail Association Potosi, MO www.ozarktrail.com/faq.php OTA provides volunteer resources to Ozark Trail land managers to build new trails, repair and maintain those that exist, and promote their awareness and use.

Potomac Appalachian Trail Club Vienna, VA 703-242-0693 Patagonia employee Ken Larussa gets a feel for the wool used in Patagonia clothing during a visit to a sheep farm in New Zealand’s southern alps. Ken Larussa

PATC maintains 240 miles of the Appalachian Trail in cooperation with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and the National Park Service.

Sequoia ForestKeeper Kernville, CA www.sequoiaforestkeeper.org Sequoia ForestKeeper is a community-based organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the ecosystems of the southern Sierra Nevada.

Sitka Conservation Society Sitka, AK www.sitkawild.org The Sitka Conservation Society works to conserve the natural environment of the Tongass National Forest and protect Sitka’s quality of life.

Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition Asheville, NC www.safc.org

Swan View Coalition Kalispell, MT www.swanview.org Swan View works to conserve peace and quiet and to secure a sustainable timber sale program on public lands through public education and public involvement whenever possible, and through administrative appeals and litigation when necessary.

Eugene, OR www.westernlaw.org WELC provides legal services to environmental organizations, grassroots groups and Native American tribes fighting to ensure that environmental and land-use laws are fairly and consistently enforced.

TreeFolks, Inc.

WildLaw

Austin, TX www.treefolks.org

Montgomery, AL www.wildlaw.org

TreeFolks grows the urban forest of central Texas through tree planting, education and community partnerships to create a healthier environment and enhance quality of urban life.

WildLaw protects the environmental integrity of human and natural communities through public education, citizen action and advocacy.

letters from the field

ForestEthics

Last December, we decided it was time to report on the industry’s progress – and since it was the holiday season, who better to issue the report than Santa himself? Our “Naughty and Nice” list revealed which companies were leading the way with environmentally sound paper policies, and which companies would be getting a lump of coal for their environmental disregard.

We’re proud to report that Patagonia came out right at the top of Santa’s “Nice” list. With our guidance, they created a policy that has become a gold standard for the industry. The catalog paper they use is among the best available, featuring 40% post-consumer recycled content and virgin content certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. They’re also committed to reducing their paper use and completely eliminating fiber from endangered forests, including caribou habitat.

After just four years, an industry that had virtually no environmental paper standards in place is shifting toward sustainability – and we applaud Patagonia for leading the way.

– Lafcadio Cortesi, Markets & Solutions Director, ForestEthics Photo: Paper made with post-consumer recycled content does much to save trees.

Ventura, California Tim Davis FORESTS

33

Solar One

Alternative Energy Our dependence on nonrenewable energy is placing us in serious jeopardy. Climate change, global warming and an increasingly degraded environment are realities we urgently need to address.

Clean, sustainable sources of energy already exist. The challenges to increasing their use are more political than logistical. These organizations are working to bridge this gap. Total given in this category in fiscal year 2008: $35,575.

New York, NY www.solar1.org Solar One seeks to empower people with the vision, knowledge and resources to attain a more environmentally sound and sustainable future.

Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Knoxville, TN www.cleanenergy.org Southern Alliance for Clean Energy promotes responsible energy choices to help solve global warming problems and ensure clean, safe and healthy communities throughout the Southeast.

Utah Clean Energy Salt Lake City, UT www.utahcleanenergy.org

Spotlight: HEAL Utah Like the rest of the nation, Utah needs to develop energy resources that help the country meet demand, keep the economy going and preserve the environment. But unlike the rest of the nation, Utah stands in the crosshairs of a nuclear industry that has for decades exacted a heavy toll on both public health and the land – extracting uranium from Utah soils only to have it returned to the state as radioactive fallout and nuclear waste. Today, a nuclear “renaissance” threatens to pass a new wave of economic, environmental and public health calamities onto future generations. Embracing nuclear energy in Utah would not only further the pattern of abuse that has persisted for decades, but also soak up critical investment dollars and resources that could otherwise be put into developing Utah’s abundant renewable energy resources and potential for better conservation and efficiency.

Into the fray has stepped the Healthy Alliance of Utah (HEAL Utah), a Patagonia grant recipient committed to a state energy policy that would leave future generations of Utahns not with mountains of waste and piles of debt, but with clean air and a safer, more sustainable energy supply. To this end, HEAL Utah has dedicated its energy policy work to three primary areas: fighting legislation in a pro-nuclear state legislature that promotes nuclear power in Utah, working at a grassroots level to build support for the state to adopt a true renewables portfolio standard and prevent the passage of legislation that would undermine the development of renewables, and organizing opposition to the proposed construction of a nuclear power plant on the Green River in southern Utah.

Alternative Energy Resources Organization Helena, MT www.aeromt.org AERO is a 33-year-old grassroots organization whose members are working together to improve the quality of lives, their communities and the environment.

Energy Independence Now Santa Barbara, CA www.einow.org EIN is dedicated to developing innovative, action-oriented solutions to catalyze a rapid transition to a clean, renewable energy and transportation economy in California through policy, advocacy and research.

GRID Alternatives San Francisco, CA www.gridalternatives.org GRID Alternatives works to empower communities by providing renewable energy and energy efficiency services, equipment and training.

HEAL Utah Salt Lake City, UT www.healutah.org HEAL Utah works to ensure the state of Utah remains nuclear free and to promote the development of renewable energy resources.

Idaho Rural Council Bliss, ID www.idahoruralcouncil.org IRC seeks to preserve the economic well-being of Idaho’s family farms and rural communities, build a more sustainable society and achieve good stewardship of humanity, land, air and water.

Utah Clean Energy works to speed the transition to a cleaner, safer, more sustainable energy future through advocacy, education and diverse partnerships.

Western Kentucky University Foundation Bowling Green, KY www.wku.edu/wkufoundationinc/Staff.htm The WKU Foundation sponsored the 2008 Bowling Green Bicycle Summit, which brought together community leaders from Bowling Green, Warren County and the surrounding region, to teach how their area could benefit from supporting bicycling as an alternate form of transportation.

Office for Resource Efficiency Crested Butte, CO www.resourceefficiency.org ORE encourages energy and resource efficiency and the development of renewable energy sources to help lower utility costs, decrease emissions and create a more sustainable economic and energy future for the Gunnison Valley.

> Photo: Wind and solar: renewable, compatible and clean. Guenter Rossenbach

Photos: (left) HEAL Utah members stand in support of a bill (which did not pass) to create a 25% by 2025 renewable energy standard for Utah. Photo courtesy of HEAL Utah; (right) Nuclear power, the Utah Legislature’s preferred source of energy. Gerry Ellis

35

taking measure

the footprint chronicles™

The trail left behind the making of a product often equals the weight of the product itself.

As a company, we’ve always believed that to avoid complacency at every level, we must lead an examined life. Last year we decided to formalize this belief by collecting information on the impacts of our manufacturing. We began by focusing on five products, attempting to measure their impacts on the environment, from design to delivery. Impacts included distance traveled, CO2 emissions, solid waste produced and energy consumed.

We realized we needed a novel means of communicating to our customers what we were doing. We wanted the presentation to be engaging and transparent, not another static report. We hoped it would motivate people to want to learn more. And we wanted a tool that would enable us to learn out loud in public. We called our presentation “The Footprint Chronicles,” and we set it up as an interactive mini Web site.

We sent video cameras to all corners of the planet to offer an unprecedented level of transparency both internal to Patagonia and external to the factories and manufacturing facilities with whom we partner. On camera, we interviewed workers, managers, owners, designers and auditors in an effort to identify both the good and bad of our manufacturing processes, which we then summarized on the site next to an image of the product itself.

The Footprint Chronicles contains over 20 original interview videos and 10 slideshows. We offer our thoughts about our manufacturing impacts and ask customers to share theirs with us. Finally, to help make what admittedly can be a difficult concept more tangible, we offer equivalents of distance, carbon dioxide emissions, solid waste production and energy consumption.

One of our most startling realizations was how little of the energy consumed and carbon dioxide emitted was related to transporting our products ­– less than 1% of

36 Patagonia’s sewing room is but one stop on the path to self-knowledge. Tim Davis

the total. We were surprised because a lot of attention has been given lately to emissions related to transportation in a global economy.

What we discovered about waste, however, mortified us. The trail left behind the making of a product often equals the weight of the product itself. There have to be solutions to this problem, but we don’t yet know what they are.

Footwear was especially interesting, since it is a fairly new category for us. Though we have an experienced team working on our shoe line, those of us who work on clothing were quite ignorant about footwear manufacturing. So The Footprint Chronicles has served as a tool to educate employees as well as our broader community.

The Footprint Chronicles attempts to honestly examine and offer information. We don’t try to explain away the problems, but we promise to examine them and work to improve our processes. We are using it as a catalyst for change, improvement and communication. We’ve now examined 10 products, and each season we’ll add five new ones. We also have a Footprint library, which contains PDF reports on our efforts around corporate social responsibility, paper use and procurement, packaging and other topics.

The site does have a caveat: These examinations are partial and preliminary. As we learn more, the picture will gain more focus. And the more we see and reflect on what we see, the more bad practices we’ll be able to change with all the speed we can muster.

With this effort to examine Patagonia’s life and habits as a company, the idea is to change habits often played out on an industrial scale, with related effects. We’ve been in business long enough to know that when we can reduce or eliminate a harm, other businesses will be eager to follow suit. You can check out The Footprint Chronicles at patagonia.com/footprint.

37

Sustainable Agriculture

Farm Worker Pesticide Project

Iowa Citizens

Sustainable Community Gardens

Seattle, WA www.fwpp.org

Des Moines, IA www.iowacci.org

Sunnyvale, CA www.fullcirclesunnyvale.org

Farm Worker Pesticide Project seeks to end exposures to agricultural pesticides among farm workers and their families.

Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement seeks to empower and unite grassroots people of all ethnic backgrounds to be a vehicle for social, economic and environmental justice.

SCG is dedicated to the renewal of local, sustainable food systems throughout Silicon Valley.

LA Conservation Corps

Crested Butte, CO www.TheEquilibriumFund.org

The environmental costs of chemical-intensive farming are no longer acceptable. Rampant pesticide use, soil depletion and genetic modification of crops threaten the air we breathe, the water we drink

Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc.

and the land we depend on for food and habitat. Sustainable agriculture is a realistic and necessary

Saint Paul, MN www.flaginc.org

alternative to those practices. The following groups are leading the fight – either through example or through education – to replace the self-defeating cycle of destructive agriculture with the natural and nurturing techniques of sustainable farming. Total given in this category in fiscal year 2008: $123,000.

LACC provides organically grown produce to low-income residents in the San Gabriel Valley.

The Equilibrium Fund helps rural and indigenous women find ways to produce food, earn income and raise healthy families without destroying their environment.

MESA

The Food Project

San Francisco, CA www.mesaprogram.org

Lincoln, MA www.thefoodproject.org

MESA sponsors ecological on-the-job training programs in the U.S. and abroad for agriculturalists wanting to learn alternative farming techniques and share cross-cultural experiences.

The Food Project exists to create a thoughtful community of youth and adults from diverse backgrounds who work together to build a sustainable food system.

Gulf Restoration Network

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides

Urban Tilth

New Orleans, LA www.healthygulf.org

Eugene, OR www.pesticide.org

The Gulf Restoration Network is committed to protecting and restoring the valuable resources in the Gulf of Mexico.

Northwest Coalition for Alternatives to Pesticides seeks to protect public health and the environment by advancing alternatives to pesticides.

Hawaii Seed

Pesticide Action Network NA

Western Organization of Resource Councils Education Project

Kealakekua, HI www.gmofreehawaii.org

San Francisco, CA www.panna.org

Billings, MT www.worc.org

Hawaii SEED is a coalition of grassroots groups on each of the five major Hawaiian Islands taking action to promote locally based, sustainable agricultural systems.

PANNA works to replace pesticide use with ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.

WORCEP works to advance the vision of a democratic, sustainable and just society through community action.

FLAG is a nonprofit law center dedicated to providing legal services to protect family farmers, rural communities and the environment, and to promote a safe, diverse, stable food supply.

Global Justice Ecology Project

Spotlight: Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc. Genetically modified crops are now as much a part of American agriculture as tractors.

But they’re one of the most contentious parts. State and federal governments, courts and farmers are all wrestling with the regulation of these crops – which ones are planted, how they are planted and who is liable when they contaminate nongenetically modified crops nearby. Biotech corporations and governments have lawyers to represent their interests, and thanks to Farmers’ Legal Action Group (FLAG), so do grassroots farm organizations, family farmers and others who value sustainable agriculture.

FLAG, a 22-year-old nonprofit law firm, has been standing with family farmers since the farm crisis of the 1980s. It works to make sure that both public policy and individual farmers’ decisions on biotech crops are based on solid law, accurate information and the greater good. That way, grassroots organizations can begin to hold corporate interests accountable for the spread of biotech crops throughout our environment; and farmers and progressive agriculture organizations have up-to-date information about the legal and environmental consequences of genetically modified crops.

It’s not always glamorous work – reviewing contracts, analyzing proposed regulations, researching and writing guidebooks. But it’s work that is having a direct impact on sustainable practices in the fields of many thousands of farms. And FLAG’s counsel, research and legal strategies go far to support the work of organizations working on behalf of sustainable agriculture.

Photo: Tidy row crops get a dose of chemical love at a farm in Oxnard, California.

Tim Davis

Californians for GE-Free Agriculture

Dakota Resource Council

Occidental, CA www.calgefree.org

Dickinson, ND www.drcinfo.com

This group is a coalition of California-based environmental, consumer and ecological farming groups aligned against the continued presence of genetically engineered crops in California.

DRC works to preserve family farms, enforce corporate farming laws, conserve soil and water, regulate coal mining and oil and gas development and more, by forming enduring, democratic local groups that empower people to influence decision-making processes that affect their lives.

Canadian Biotechnology Action Network Ottawa, ON www.cban.ca CBAN works to promote food sovereignty and democratic decision-making on science and technology issues to protect the integrity of the environment, health, food and the livelihoods of people in Canada.

Dakota Rural Action Brookings, SD www.dakotarural.org DRA seeks to build grassroots leadership through community organizing by giving people a strong voice in decisions affecting their quality of life.

Center for Food Safety

Ecotrust

Washington, DC www.centerforfoodsafety.org

Portland, OR www.ecotrust.org

The Center for Food Safety addresses the impacts of our current industrial-agricultural and food-production systems on human health, the environment and animal welfare.

Ecotrust is a conservation organization committed to strengthening communities and the environment from Alaska to California, in order to build a regional economy based on social and ecological opportunities.

Los Angeles, CA www.lacorps.org

The Equilibrium Fund

Hinesburg, VT www.globaljusticeecology.org GJEP builds local, national and international alliances to address the root causes of social injustice, economic domination and environmental destruction.

Rural Advancement Foundation Int. Pittsboro, NC www.rafiusa.org RAFI works to create and support sustainable, equitable and diverse farm and food systems.

San Pablo, CA www.urbantilth.org Urban Tilth cultivates agriculture in west Contra Costa County to help its community build a more sustainable, healthy and just food system.

Wild Farm Alliance Watsonville, CA www.wildfarmalliance.org

Dollar for Dollar When Patagonia employees are not in the office, we take to the mountains to climb or ski, paddle a stretch of river or cast a fly into its riffles, or head to the ocean to surf or kayak. We see the wild lands we love so dearly being polluted, shorelines altered, streambeds eroded, forests clearcut and everywhere we see less wildlife and fewer wild fish. That is why those of us who work here share a strong commitment to protecting what’s left of these wild places.

Not only do we volunteer our time to help protect the places we love and the world around us, we open our wallets and purses to support a wide range of nonprofit groups working to make the world a better place. Wilderness groups like the Nevada Wilderness Project and the Alaska Wilderness League have benefited from employee donations, as well as groups like the Buffalo Field Campaign and the Ojai Raptor Center. On the social side of things, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the Food Bank of Santa Barbara have benefited as well. Patagonia supports this generosity by matching employee donations dollar for dollar, enabling them to double their contributions. Since our Charity Match Program began in 1995, we’ve matched more than $700,000 in employee donations – more than $100,000 this year alone. Nonprofit groups depend on these types of donations to continue their vital work and we are proud of our employees who contribute to their success.

Wild Farm Alliance promotes healthy, viable agriculture that protects and restores wild nature.

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE

39

Social Activism

Environmental Law Foundation

Grist

Louisiana Bucket Brigade

London, UK www.elflaw.org

Seattle, WA www.grist.org

New Orleans, LA www.labucketbrigade.org

The Environmental Law Foundation helps people to use the law to protect and improve their local environment and quality of life.

A fiercely independent online environmental magazine, Grist exists to tell the untold stories, spotlight trends before they become trendy and engage the apathetic.

The Louisiana Bucket Brigade is an environmental health and justice organization working with communities that neighbor petrochemical plants.

HeadCount, Inc.

Michigan Environmental Council

Public Media Center

New York, NY www.HeadCount.org

Lansing, MI www.mecprotects.org

San Francisco, CA www.publicmediacenter.org

HeadCount is a non-partisan organization devoted to registering voters and promoting participation in democracy.

MEC seeks to provide a collective voice for the environment by building diverse alliances, educating decision makers and rallying the public in support of environmental protections.

PMC is a strategic marketing, communications and advocacy agency working exclusively on behalf of environmental, social justice and public interest causes.

Nevada Rock Art Foundation

Roaring Fork Outdoor Volunteers

Reno, NV www.NevadaRockArt.org

Basalt, CO www.rfov.org

Nevada Rock Art Foundation use volunteers to conserve rock art sites through public education, site recording and site monitoring.

RFOV promotes stewardship of our public lands by creating volunteer opportunities for trail work and conservation projects.

New Mexico Environmental Law Center

Seeds for Change Network

The battle to save our environment will never be won unless the public is informed and empowered to fight for a sustainable and just society. Until then, “Wise Use” groups will pursue their misinformation

Environmental Support Center

campaigns, and our environmental laws will continue to be threatened by short-sighted politicians and

Washington, DC www.envsc.org

government officials who pander to special interests. We therefore support a wide variety of groups committed to bringing about long-term, ecologically conscious, social and political change by engaging citizens in environmental campaigns. Total given in this category in fiscal year 2008: $201,400.

Spotlight: Louisiana Bucket Brigade Dorothy Jenkins used to call the refinery near her home in New Sarpy, just west of New Orleans, to complain about the odors. A low-ranking operator would tell her not to worry, the black plume of smoke that billowed for hours near her home was not harmful. Now Mrs. Jenkins, president of Concerned Citizens of New Sarpy, has a bucket. When refinery managers and government regulators tell her there is nothing to worry about, she answers, “Why then, was there a benzene reading of 14 in my air sample, a reading that violates the state standards?”

Dorothy is one of hundreds of activists the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has trained to use a bucket to monitor air quality. Founded in 2000 to empower communities that were ignored or overlooked, the Brigade has trained them not only to turn a common household item into a scientific tool, but also to find their voice and their power as citizens able to hold institutions accountable to provide a safe and healthy environment.

One by one, the Brigade is linking communities like New Sarpy with others to mobilize their power locally and advocate collectively for solutions. They’ve created the Fenceline Neighbors Network, so together, citizens can learn from lessons gleaned over city and parish lines. They’re also researching all 16 oil refineries currently operating in the state to identify common problems, and then working with local and national groups to demand solutions. While ambitious, the Brigade knows the citizens of Louisiana deserve nothing less.

Photos: (left) Petitions fill against forest closures in Salmon, Idaho. Jim Oltersdorf;; (right) Louisiana Bucket Brigade member Percy Hollins grabs an air sample to test for pollutants

ESC works to promote the quality of the natural environment, human health and community sustainability by increasing the organizational effectiveness of regional, state and local organizations working on environmental issues and for environmental justice.

2025 Project

B-Sense Forum

Environmental-Aboriginal Guardianship Through Law and Education

Tokyo, Japan www.2025.jp

Tokyo, Japan b-sense@mail.goo.ne.jp

Vancouver, BC www.eaglelaw.org

2025 Project works to raise awareness of environmental and social problems in the world among young people.

B-Sense Forum works to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity to human beings.

EAGLE uses both environmental and Aboriginal law to assist Aboriginal leaders and decision-makers in protecting sacred lands and the natural environment.

Association Citoyenne Active de Lutte contre les Pollutions Grignon, France http://acalp.blogspot.com ACALP concerns itself with the effects of incinerator pollution on the environment and public health, working to promote alternative solutions.

Aspen Center for Environmental Studies Aspen, CO www.aspennature.org ACES seeks to inspire a life-long commitment to the earth by educating for environmental responsibility, conserving and restoring the balance of natural communities and advancing the ethic that the earth must be respected and nurtured.

Cascade Resources Advocacy Group Portland, OR www.crag.org CRAG is a client-focused law center that supports community efforts to protect and sustain the Pacific Northwest’s natural legacy.

Do The Right Thing! Recycling Chicago, IL 773-213-6271 Do The Right Thing! Recycling promotes recycling through education, community involvement and customized recycling services.

Forest Ecology Network Lexington, ME www.forestecologynetwork.org Forest Ecology Network seeks to protect the native forest environment of Maine through public awareness, grassroots citizen activism and education.

GreenLaw Atlanta, GA www.cleangeorgia.org GreenLaw is dedicated to preventing air and water pollution that endangers human health and degrades Georgia’s natural resources, by providing free, high quality legal and technical assistance to environmental organizations and community groups.

High Country Conservation Center Frisco, CO www.highcountryconservation.org HCCC works to improve awareness and appreciation of our environment and to assist in its preservation.

Hnutí Duha, Friends of Earth Czech Republic Bratislavska, Czech Republic www.hnutiduha.cz Hnutí DUHA advocates environmental solutions to improve our quality of life by inspiring actions that improve environmental health and conserve nature.

League of Conservation Voters Education Fund Washington, DC www.lcveducation.org LCV works to strengthen the capacity of the environmental movement to mobilize citizens as informed voters and advocates for sound environmental policies.

Santa Fe, NM www.nmenvirolaw.org The New Mexico Environmental Law Center works to protect New Mexico’s natural environment and communities through legal advocacy and public education.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Inc. New York, NY www.plannedparenthood.org Planned Parenthood exists to provide comprehensive reproductive and complementary health care services in settings that preserve and protect the essential privacy and rights of each individual.

Planned Parenthood of Santa Barbara, Ventura and SLO Counties Santa Barbara, CA www.ppsbvslo.org Planned Parenthood advocates responsible attitudes toward sexuality and constructive planning to reduce teenage pregnancy.

Oxford, England www.seedsforchange.org.uk Seeds for Change is a network of experienced activist-trainers that delivers high-quality campaign and action-skills training to grassroots campaigners across the UK.

Seven Generations Ahead Oak Park, IL www.sevengenerationsahead.org SGA advocates for local community solutions to global environmental issues and works to promote renewable energy, eco-effective materials and products, sustainable buildings and local food.

and toxins near his home in Norco, Louisiana. Thom Scott SOCIAL ACTIVISM

41

letters from the field

Sierra Club of Canada – BC Chapter

Volunteers for Outdoor California

Victoria, BC www.sierraclub.ca/bc

Redwood City, CA www.v-o.cal.org

The Sierra Club of B.C. exists to conserve what remains of B.C.’s magnificent ancient forests, wildlife and marine ecosystems threatened by clear-cut logging, global warming, oil tanker traffic, unscrupulous extraction of resources, pollution and unbridled development.

Volunteers for Outdoor California organizes and provides a grassroots volunteer workforce for large-scale habitat restoration, trail building and maintenance, and related stewardship activities on public lands.

Southern Environmental Law Center Atlanta, GA www.SouthernEnvironment.org SELC has used the full power of the law to conserve clean water, healthy air, wild lands, and livable communities throughout the Southeast.

The Access Fund

Alaska Wilderness League

Who could turn down a polar bear’s request to take action? No one who visited Patagonia’s booth at the Outdoor Retailer show last summer could resist the polar bear’s entreaty to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Those who heeded the bear’s plea to write their member of Congress and contribute to the Alaska Wilderness League received a limited edition Patagonia “Preserve the Reserve” tote bag filled with goodies.

The event was the kickoff for Patagonia’s amazingly effective “Preserve the Reserve” campaign. The Alaska Wilderness League was honored to partner with Patagonia to promote strong protection for the refuge.

All things Patagonia were Arctic-related. You could not miss the almost lifesize polar bear that greeted you in each store. Thousands and thousands of polar bear postcards addressed to Congress, calling for wilderness protection for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, were available to shoppers (stores and catalog). The Alaska Wilderness League has delivered 4,500 of those cards and they are still coming in!

Patagonia also generously supported presentations around the country by Arctic adventurer Jon Waterman. In Washington, DC, the Alaska Wilderness League and Patagonia joined National Geographic in hosting a presentation by biologist George Schaller and Jon Waterman. Rounding out the campaign, Patagonia recruited more than 4,000 customers in September 2007 to ask their representatives to support the Arctic Wilderness legislation. It turned on its online spigot again in November to generate thousands of emails urging the Senate to cosponsor Senator Lieberman’s bill to designate the Arctic as wilderness. Thank you, Patagonia!

Boulder, CO www.accessfund.org The Access Fund exists to conserve the climbing environment and keep climbing areas open.

The Urban Conservancy New Orleans, LA www.urbanconservancy.org The Urban Conservancy is dedicated to research, education and advocacy that promotes the wise stewardship of the urban-built environment and local economies.

Western Shoshone Defense Project Crescent Valley, NV www.wsdp.org WSDP seeks to affirm Newe Western Shoshone jurisdiction within Western Shoshone homelands by protecting, preserving and restoring Newe rights and lands for present and future generations.

Winter Wildlands Alliance Boise, ID www.winterwildlands.org WWA is a national organization promoting and preserving winter wild lands and a quality human-powered snow sports experience on public lands.

Wolf Conservation Center South Salem, NY www.nywolf.org

Tides Canada Foundation

The Wolf Conservation Center promotes wolf conservation by teaching about wolves, their relationship to the environment and the human role in protecting their future.

Terrace, BC 250-638-8250

Photos: (left) A life-size polar bear rallies support

Tides Canada Foundation actively promotes change toward social and environmental wellbeing founded on the principles of social justice, far-sighted environmental stewardship, broadly shared economic opportunity, and robust, inclusive and participatory democratic process.

roll ’em

wild & scenic film festival

For the past three years, Patagonia has sponsored the Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival, organized and hosted by the South Yuba River Citizens League (SYRCL) in Nevada City, California. The festival is a dynamic three-day conversation, carried on in film, cafés and workshops. This year’s lineup of shorts included narratives from people all over the globe engaged in citizen action against corporate abuse, oppressive government polices and the inertia of institutions that are slow to reform. The films highlighted the “tipping point” the planet may be reaching, pushed to the precipice by rampant resource exploitation, climate change and species extinction. They also portrayed the “turning of the tide,” as communities realize and respond to these crises with creativity, resolve and heart.

Patagonia also supports a touring version of the festival, Wild & Scenic On Tour, which packages the film festival into a three-hour program that can be shared with communities around the country. The On Tour program has grown from a single showing in Murphys, California, when Ebbetts Pass Forest Watch requested the festival, to screenings at more than 50 venues nationwide. Working with SYRCL, Patagonia now offers eligible environmental groups a Wild & Scenic grant to offset the costs of hosting Wild & Scenic On Tour.

By making these films available to a wider audience, Patagonia and SYRCL hope to help create a network of grassroots organizations connected by a common goal: using film to inspire activism.

Go to www.wildandscenicfilmfestival.org to find, or host, your own local festival.

for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge at the Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 2007 in Salt Lake City, Utah. Mark Christmas; (right) Moviegoers visit between events at the premiere of this year’s Wild & Scenic Environmental Film Festival in Nevada City, California. Bob Lickter

– Cindy Shogan, Alaska Wilderness League

42

SOCIAL ACTIVISM

43

Resource Extraction

Klabona Keepers Society

Refinery Reform Campaign

SkyTruth

Vermonters for a Clean Environment

Iskut, BC www.sacredheadwaters.com

San Francisco, CA www.refineryreform.org

Shepherdstown, WV www.skytruth.org

Danby, VT www.vce.org

Klabona Keepers is working to establish a voice for Tahltan elders and community members to put forward a vision of sustainable development that maintains their culture and sense of place.

The Refinery Reform Campaign seeks to clean up America’s oil refineries and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

SkyTruth promotes environmental awareness and protection with remote sensing and digital mapping technology.

VCE works on mining issues in Vermont, as well as participating in the state’s permitting process to hold corporations working in Vermont accountable for their actions.

Rock Creek Alliance

Stop Drilling Save the Bridger-Teton

Sandpoint, ID www.rockcreekalliance.org

Bondurant, WY www.sdsbt.org

MLUI supports advocacy, communications and grassroots organizing to revive Michigan’s Natural River Act, which safeguards the state’s wild rivers.

RCA promotes education and facilitates public participation to prevent pollution and protect ecosystems from natural resource extraction, especially hard-rock mining, in northern Idaho and western Montana.

SDSBT is working to stop drilling, stimulate local citizen action and engage federal agencies and leaders to stop the rapid spread of energy exploitation that threatens ecologically important areas in the Bridger-Teton National Forest.

Mountain Watershed Association

Save Our Cumberland Mountains

The Clinch Coalition

Melcroft, PA www.mtwatershed.com

Lake City, TN www.socm.org

Dungannon, VA www.clinchcoalition.net

Mountain Watershed Association works toward the conservation, preservation and restoration of the Indian Creek watershed in Westmoreland and Fayette counties.

Save Our Cumberland Mountains works to protect the Cumberland Mountains from the harmful effects of mining and logging.

The Clinch Coalition is working to protect and preserve the forest, wildlife and watersheds of the Clinch Ranger District of the Jefferson National Forest and surrounding areas.

Most mines in the U.S. are established and operated under the grossly outdated regulations of the General Mining Act of 1872. The groups that follow are working to revise that law, stop the growth of resource extraction operations, clean up pollution created by industry, and develop new sources of energy to replace the environmentally damaging ones upon which we currently depend. Total given in this category in fiscal year 2008: $183,500.

Spotlight: Great Basin Resource Watch If the state of Nevada were a country, it would rank as the third largest gold-producing nation in the world. Unfortunately, the biggest polluter in the state is the gold mining industry. Mercury emissions, precious groundwater wasted, abandoned radioactive mines and perpetual pollution without proper cleanup are just some of the problems Nevada communities face because of mining.

Great Basin Resource Watch (GBRW) was founded in 1994 to protect the land, air, water, wildlife and residents of Nevada’s Great Basin from the adverse impacts of mining. Its founders include people from the environmental, Native American and scientific communities. The Great Basin, which covers more than half of Nevada and extends into Idaho, has borne the brunt of the mining industry’s impacts. And despite the industry’s relatively small contributions to the economy and jobs, it enjoys considerable political clout.

It’s an uphill battle, but GBRW saw some progress last year with the passage of three state bills that help to protect the state from mining. One increased oversight of mercury emissions, another reversed a change of law used to deny GBRW and other groups to appeal mining permits to the state Environmental Commission, and the third ensured a representative from an environmental group a seat on the Environmental Commission.

Thanks to the work of GBRW and others, the mining industry’s access to Nevada’s public lands becomes more difficult if it doesn’t change the way it does business. In the Great Basin, the changes are still relatively minor, but the opportunities are great.

Photos: (left) Oil and gas wells, pipelines and roads in the San Juan Basin of New Mexico.

Appalachian Center for the Economy and the Environment Lewisburg, WV www.appalachian-center.org The center works to protect Appalachia’s communities and environment by enforcing and strengthening environmental laws.

Coal River Mountain Watch Whitesville, WV www.crmw.net

Energy Minerals Law Center Durango, CO 970-375-9231 EMLC develops legal strategies and provides free services to communities and groups fighting the impacts of energy mineral development.

Gifford Pinchot Task Force Portland, OR www.gptaskforce.org

Coal River Mountain Watch is working to stop the destruction of the environment and of small communities in southern West Virginia caused by mountaintop-removal coal mining.

The Gifford Pinchot Task Force seeks to preserve and restore the ecosystems and communities of southwestern Washington, by promoting conservation of forest ecosystems and sustainable restoration-based employment.

Earthworks

Great Basin Resource Watch

Washington, DC www.earthworksaction.org

Reno, NV www.greatbasinminewatch.org

Earthworks promotes national efforts to protect communities and the environment from the destructive impacts of mineral development.

GBRW exists to protect the land, air, water and wildlife of the Great Basin and the communities that depend on them.

Michigan Land Use Institute Traverse City, MI www.mlui.org

Ohio Citizen Action Education Fund Cincinnati, OH www.ohiocitizen.org Ohio Citizen Action Education Fund organizes grassroots environmental campaigns to protect public health and the environment.

Save the Scenic Santa Ritas Tucson, AZ www.scenicsantaritas.org Save the Scenic Santa Ritas is dedicated to helping preserve and protect environmentally sensitive lands in southern Arizona.

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition

Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition

Huntington, WV www.ohvec.org

Hazelton, BC www.skeenawatershed.com

OVEC is dedicated to the improvement and preservation of the environment through education, grassroots organizing and coalition building, leadership development and media outreach.

The Skeena Watershed Conservation Coalition is working to foster a healthy, sustainable economy and healthy cultures rooted in the thriving wild-salmon watershed of the Skeena River.

Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership Washington, DC www.trcp.org TRCP is a coalition of leading conservation organizations and individual grassroots partners working together on access and conservation issues affecting hunting and angling.

Upper Green River Valley Coalition Pinedale, WY www.uppergreen.org UGRVC is a group of citizens, sportsmen, businesses and conservation organizations dedicated to responsible, sustainable management of the wildlife, waters and air quality of Wyoming’s upper Green River.

West Virginia Surface Owner’s Rights Organization Charleston, WV www.wvsoro.org This organization of mostly small landowners in West Virginia, educates its members as to their rights around oil and gas development beneath their land, shares information and influences policy makers.

Western Mining Action Project Lyons, CO www.wman-info.org WMAP exists to provide free legal services to grassroots and community-based organizations and Native American tribes on mining issues in the western U.S.

Western Slope Environmental Resource Council Paonia, CO www.wserc.org WSERC is dedicated to protecting and enhancing the natural environment and quality of life in Delta County and Colorado’s western slope.

Wyoming Outdoor Council Lander, WY www.wyomingoutdoorcouncil.org WOC works to safeguard the state’s spectacular national parks and protected areas, vast national forests and other public lands, worldrenowned wildlife and its habitat, blue-ribbon fisheries and enviable air and water quality.

Courtesy of San Juan Citizens Alliance.. (right) An abandoned gold mine continues to produce even after operations have ceased. Courtesy of Great Basin Resource Watch RESOURCE EXTRACTION

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leaving work

for good Environmental groups all over the world received help from Patagonia employees who volunteered this year through the company’s Environmental Internship Program. Through the program, which is now in its 15th year, environmentally minded employees lend their passion and expertise to the nonprofit organization of their choice for up to two months with full pay and benefits.

To date, some 600 employees have participated – 64 of them this year.

Dealer Services rep Ting Hammond helped the Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association promote the use of alternative transportation in Taipei, Taiwan, while Louise Danel, a buyer from our Annecy office, built solar ovens in rural Bolivia with NGO Bolivia Inti. Elizabeth Ruiz, a retail associate in our SoHo store, worked with Surfrider Foundation in Puerto Rico to reduce the amount of trash on island beaches. Pasadena store employees rock-hopped through Southern California watersheds eradicating invasive plants, and Bryn Pitterle, a product developer in Ventura, Calif., spent two months on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula monitoring the health of waters in the Cook Inlet.

Not all internships entailed fieldwork. Drew Story, an information technology (IT) fellow in Ventura, used his considerable experience to develop a Web advocacy tool for the Nevada Wilderness Project in Reno, Nevada.

For some mysterious reason, 2007 was the year of the turtle, with four employees devoting themselves to the 46 Patagonia employee Evan Heiser holds a pair of leatherback hatchlings during an environmental internship with Voluntarios Pretoma at Playa San Miguel, Costa Rica. Ricard Piulats

environmental internship program

health and welfare of the easygoing reptile. Retail coordinator Evan Heiser measured, tagged and monitored olive ridleys nesting on Pacific beaches in Costa Rica, working with Voluntarios Pretoma. Anthony Garcia, an IT employee in Ventura, volunteered with San Diegobased Pro Peninsula to assess the group’s IT capabilities and create a PowerPoint presentation about threats to loggerheads in Baja California. Web designer Adrienne Primosch, also worked on behalf of loggerheads, in this instance on the other side of the Pacific, where she confronted threats to nesting turtles and their hatchlings on the beaches of Japan’s Yakushima Island. Freshwater turtles benefited as well, as staff from our St. Paul, Minn., store paddled canoes to help with a basking turtle survey sponsored by the Mississippi River Fund.

This Year’s Internships

The $70,000 allocated by the company to the Environmental Internship Program went quickly this year. The funds are administered by a volunteer committee made up of employees, who read internship applications and parcel out the money. So to stretch the budget further, a few enterprising committee members took the unprecedented step of asking department heads to cover the internship costs of their employees with money from their own budgets.

Ting Hammond (Dealer Services) Wild at Heart Legal Defense Assoc., Taiwan

Every department head said yes, knowing their investment would pay dividends when employees returned to their desks refreshed and recharged from one of Patagonia’s most popular and meaningful programs.

Brian Halvorsen (Ventura Store) Surfrider - Ventura County Chapter, California

Lisa Myers (Enviro Dept.) Grupo Lobo, Portugal Maggy Wages (R&D Systems) Raincoast Conservation Society, Canada Bucky Ballou (Dillon Store) Institute for Bird Populations, California Kevin Wikander (Internet Fulfillment) The Sugar Pine Foundation, California Bryn Pitterle (Alpine/Ski) Cook InletKeeper, Alaska Mikey Stewart (Washington, DC, Store) Hope for Haiti, Haiti Adrienne Primosch (Internet) Yakushima Umigame Kan, Japan Anthony Garcia (Information Technology) Pro Peninsula, Baja California Washington, DC, Store Potomac Conservancy, Virginia Evan Heiser (Retail Coordinator) Voluntarios Pretoma, Costa Rica St. Paul Store Mississippi River Fund, Minnesota Jessica Gilbert (St. Paul Store) Ecology Action Center, Illinois Leigh Bost (Atlanta Store) Mountain Voices Alliance and Southern Appalachian Forest Coalition, North Carolina Drew Story (Information Technology) Nevada Wilderness Project, Nevada

Andy Mitchell (Dealer Services) Save Our Wild Salmon, Washington Max Müller (Munich Store) Bergwaldprojekt, Germany Lisa Kinigadner (Munich Store) Bergwaldprojekt, Germany Haleiwa Store Waimea Valley Audubon Center, Hawaii Eric Speakman (Portland Store) Zenger Farm, Oregon Louise Danel (Logistics, Pat Europe) Bolivia Inti - Sud Soleil, Bolivia Alyssa Firmin (Creative Services) Growing Solutions, California Pasadena Store Habitat Works of Southern California, California Elizabeth Ruiz (NYC SoHo Store) Surfrider - Puerto Rico

Whintes Brice (Sample Room) Wind River Alliance, Wyoming Jake Martin (Marketing) Surfbreak Protection Society, New Zealand Su Ruh (Westport Store) East Coast Greenway Alliance, Rhode Island Fabri di Piazza (NYC UWS Store) Waterkeeper Alliance, New York

47

Tama Ajisai No Kai

Toxics / Nuclear One in four Americans lives within four miles of a Superfund site – uncontrolled or abandoned places

Tokyo, Japan http://www011.upp.so-net.ne.jp/tamaaji Tama Ajisai No Kai works to investigate, raise awareness and decrease environmental pollution from a landfill located in Hinode-machi, Tokyo, as well as pollution from a factory that produces eco-cement from incineration trash.

containing some of the nation’s most toxic waste. Working to protect public health and the varied environments of local communities, the groups in this category seek to hold corporations and the government

Tri-Valley CAREs

accountable. They work to clean up hazardous, nuclear and toxic waste, while supporting positive policy

Livermore, CA www.trivalleycares.org

changes to reduce and eliminate their use. Total given in this category in fiscal year 2008: $35,900.

Spotlight: Iwate Committee to Protect the Sanriku Sea from Radiation Japan Nuclear Fuel Limited, a nuclear power company, is now conducting tests that will lead to the operation of a spent nuclear fuel processing plant on the west coast of Japan. Situated near the coastal village of Rokkasho-mura, in Aomori Prefecture, the plant is designed to extract unburned residual uranium and plutonium from spent nuclear fuel generated by nuclear power plants throughout Japan. When operating at full capacity, the plant will process some 800 tons of the stuff per year, resulting in the release of radioactive gas into the atmosphere and radioactive liquid into the Pacific Ocean. A 2002 estimate by Greenpeace Japan reported that at capacity, the plant would release in a single day, radiation equivalent to that generated in a whole year by a nuclear power plant. Many oppose the plant, including neighboring fishing cooperatives, farmers, consumer cooperatives, kayakers and surfers, who are raising concerns about radioactive contamination and the potential damage to agriculture and marine life. Patagonia environmental grant recipient Iwate Committee to Protect the Sanriku Sea from Radiation is fighting to stop the plant and the government policies that support it, on behalf of the global environment and all who enjoy the

Action Consommation

Oregon Center for Environmental Health

Paris, France www.actionconsommation.org

Portland, OR www.oregon-health.org

Action Consommation promotes ethical consumption as an economic and political tool, and a factor of social transformation, to raise awareness of the power and responsibility of consumers as a collective.

The Oregon Center for Environmental Health is a statewide organization working to protect public health and the environment by promoting alternatives to the use, manufacture, release and disposal of toxic chemicals.

Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice

Oregon Toxics Alliance

San Francisco, CA www.greenaction.org Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice is a multiracial organization that mobilizes communities to win victories against polluters and change government and corporate policies and practices to protect health and foster environmental justice.

Eugene, OR www.oregontoxics.org OTA works for all Oregonians to expose root causes of toxic pollution and help communities find solutions that protect human and environmental health.

Snake River Alliance Education Fund

benefits of a rich and healthy Sanriku Sea.

Boise, ID www.snakeriveralliance.org

Photo: (left) This form of electricity comes with radioactive consequences. Browns Ferry

Snake River Alliance uses research, education and community advocacy for peace and justice, the end to nuclear weapons, responsible solutions to nuclear waste and contamination, and sustainable alternatives to nuclear power.

Nuclear Plant, Alabama. Emory Kristof. (right) Where to dump the toxic trash? Peter Essick

Tri-Valley CAREs works to strengthen global security by stopping the development of new nuclear weapons in the U.S. and promoting the elimination of nuclear weapons globally.

Uranium Watch Moab, UT www.uraniumwatch.org UW is a citizen information, research, networking and environmental action project that educates and advocates for protection of public health and the environment from the impacts of uranium and mining.

Worcester Roots Project Worcester, MA www.worcesterroots.org The Worcester Roots Project aims to create safe spaces for living, working and playing by addressing the issue of lead contamination in its city.

What part of NO don’t they understand?

Like a bunch of petulant kids, Big Oil continues to ask, “Can we drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge? Can we? Can we?” Recognizing that the Arctic Refuge is a valuable national treasure, the people continue to answer “No!” time and time again.

The Refuge holds less than a year’s supply of our nation’s oil demand, and if drilling were approved today it would take ten years before we saw a drop of it. Conservation efforts are far more effective in freeing us from dependence on foreign oil, and will help reduce global warming.

Let’s say NO in a way Big Oil can understand. The Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act will provide permanent protection for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Visit patagonia.com/arcticrefuge to take action.

The Trans-Alaska oil pipeline. Photo: Altrendo © 2007 Patagonia, Inc.

Patagonia partnered with several national publications last year to publicize the wisdom of the Udall-Eisenhower Arctic Wilderness Act. 49

join the fight This book is about people who are working to make a difference. They are protecting their rights to breathe clean

1. apply for a grant We like to support small, nonprofit, grassroots activist organizations with provocative, direct-action agendas that work on multi-pronged campaigns to preserve and protect the environment. We help groups working to protect local habitat, believing that individual battles on behalf of a specific stand of forest, stretch of river or indigenous wild species are the most effective in raising more complicated issues in the public mind – particularly those of biodiversity

air in Louisiana, preventing harmful drilling in the Arctic

and ecosystem protection.

National Wildlife Refuge and safeguarding the oceans’

To find more information on our grants guidelines and apply through our online application system, please visit the appropriate Web site: United States: patagonia.com/grants • Europe: patagonia.com/euro/grants • Japan: patagonia.com/japan/grants

fish. They inspire us. By helping to support them, we, as a company, can help to protect the places in which we

2. support a group

live, do business and play. We are proud to be a part of

Interested in finding out more about environmental actions in your area, vol-

this fight. We hope that you, too, have found inspiration from an issue or a group in these pages. Consider sup-

unteering your time or donating money? Visit our Web site to search our grants recipients database for groups working in your neck of the woods. patagonia.com/grants

porting them in whatever way you can. Support takes many forms: volunteering, offering in-kind services, dig-

3. visit patagonia to learn about local issues

ging into your pocket ... And all of us, of course, can do

We try to open Patagonia stores in communities we can become part of. We hire

more to lessen our impact on this earth. Here are a few ways you can join us: >>

knowledgeable and passionate employees who are not only committed to providing excellent customer service, but also to contributing to the community.

Each store has its own environmental grants budget that provides financial support to local groups. Our stores also act as hubs for information on local issues, events and opportunities to become involved. Visit patagonia.com and click “Find

Photo: Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings make a dash for the sea in Rancho Nuevo, Mexico.

Bill Curtsinger

Patagonia” to find one of our stores near you.

Patagonia cofounded The Conservation Alliance in 1989 to encourage for-profit companies in the outdoor industry, which might otherwise compete in the business world, to come together to support nonprofit environmental organizations. The alliance now boasts more than 155 member companies. Each pays annual dues into a central fund disbursed twice each year.

The alliance enjoyed another successful year in 2007, notable for investing an all-time high $800,000 in 30 conservation projects throughout North America. The alliance’s grant budget continues to grow as more and more outdoor companies join (28 this year) in recognition of the need to help protect wild places both for animal habitat and human recreation.

In addition to giving money, the alliance helps its members become more active on conservation issues. In 2007 it enlisted their aid in support of securing wilderness protection for federal lands in Oregon and Colorado, and protecting streams in Wyoming’s Snake River headwaters.

© 2008 Patagonia, Inc. • All rights reserved.

As the alliance nears its 20th anniversary, we at Patagonia have decided to increase our membership dues tenfold to $100,000 annually. The alliance will leverage that commitment to encourage other members also to contribute more.

Patagonia is proud to be a founding member of the alliance and to serve on its board of directors. We are proud to partner with our peers in the outdoor industry in this shared commitment to protecting wild places.

For more information about The Conservation Alliance, including a list of member companies, grant recipients, and how to apply for funding, please visit conservationalliance.com.

Photo: Frolic in the North Pahrocs. Central Nevada. Ron Hunter Cover Photo: Firth River, Ivvavik National Park, Yukon Territory, Canada. Florian Schulz