Orvis Announces Four Recipients of 2014 Orvis Customer Matching Grants to Protect Nature
Written by: Phil Monahan / ORVIS
Rare-Fish Forever in Belize works to reduce overfishing and ensure long-term sustainability in poor, vulnerable coastal communities across Belize.
Photo by Jason Houston
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s most of you surely know, Orvis commits 5% of pre-tax profits to protecting and sustaining the natural world—not only now, but for all who follow. Each year, the company and its customers support specific causes through the Customer Matching Grant program. Targeted to raise $360,000 or more, these grants are the cornerstone of our annual commitment, but they are not all the company will do: all told, Orvis will raise and contribute more than $1 million to conservation initiatives this year.
Today, the company announced the four recipients for 2014. Orvis has awarded cash grants—to match its customers’ contributions up to equal amounts—to the following organizations:
1. Trout Unlimited – The Orvis/TU 1,000 Miles Campaign
For the third year in a row, Orvis will match its customers’ contributions up to $90,000 as part of a campaign to repair or modify culverts throughout the United States to reconnect 1,000 miles of streams across the US in 10 years. A compelling new video about this program can be viewed at the Orvis/TU 1,000 Miles Campaign page. Outdated, damaged or impassable culverts—the passages that connect streams underneath roadways everywhere—are a major threat to all species of trout and other coldwater fish, often blocking passage to vital upstream spawning habitat. Compared with dam removal, these relatively low-cost, high-impact projects, “make fixing a culvert so that fish can pass one of the best investments we can make in trout recovery,” according to Trout Unlimited President and CEO Chris Wood. Funds raised through the Orvis/TU 1,000 Miles Campaign will go toward the engineering and removal of culverts. Each year TU determines a list of watersheds that will most benefit from a concerted effort to replace culverts. In the program’s first two years, more than 20 culvert projects have been completed or started from Maine to Oregon, Virginia to Wisconsin, and points in between.
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