The American Alpine Club Announces 2023 Cornerstone Conservation Grant Recipients

A trail worker from Save Mount Diablo. Photo provided by Save Mount Diablo.

April 2023

The American Alpine Club and REI are pleased to announce the 2023 Cornerstone Grant recipients. The AAC Cornerstone Conservation Grant was formally launched in 2011 to fund projects to improve, conserve, and protect local climbing resources nationwide. Seven local climbing organizations (LCOs), land managers and agencies, nonprofits, and individuals have been awarded a total of $25,000 for this grant cycle, for projects such as building or improving trail networks to climbing areas; establishing new toilet facilities and signage at trailheads; and deploying a variety of community groups for clean-up and graffiti removal at local crags. 

Summersville Lake, West Virginia.

New River Alliance of Climbers will receive $5,000 for the Whippoorwill Restoration Project in Summersville Lake, West Virginia. All funds will go towards purchasing materials needed to complete the project: gabions, stone stair treads, split rail fence, and seeds for re-vegetation.

Carolina Climbers Coalition will receive $4,000 for the Table Rock Climbers Trail Rehabilitation in Table Rock, Linville Gorge, North Carolina. Funds will be used to rehabilitate the Table Rock Climbers Trail, a new NEPA-approved trail to a historical climbing area.

Northwest Montana Climbers Coalition will receive $1,000 for the Stone Hill Signage Project in Lake Koocanusa, Montana. Funds will be used for signage materials and installation tools.

Workers from the Stone Hill Trail Network Project doing restoration work. Photo provided by Stone Hill Trail Network.

Black Folx Rock will receive $5,000 for the Diversity in Conservation Project in Papago Park, Arizona. Funds will be used to create a trail, restoration, clean-up, signage, bridge creation, and erosion reduction for a heavily used rock climbing area. 

Save Mount Diablo will receive $5,000 for the Pine Canyon Cleanup & Mount Diablo Adopt-A-Crag at Mount Diablo State Park, California. Funds will be used for equipment rental, fuel for equipment, PPE for volunteer participants, materials and tools for graffiti and litter removal, and limited staff time.

Upper Peninsula Climbers' Coalition will receive $2,000 for the Slugg's Bluff restoration in Palmer, Michigan. Funds will be used for gravel, road grading, trail work, and fencing for the community garden.

Mount Diablo State Park, CA

Western Massachusetts Climbers Coalition will receive $3,000 for a trail steward program in Farley Ledges in Erving, Massachusetts, Hanging Mountain in Sandisfield, MA, and other locations in Western MA. Funds from the AAC Cornerstone Grant will pay for training for trail leaders and volunteers, cover the cost of a volunteer tracking and waiver system, buy miscellaneous tools and materials, and pay the cost of a part-time paid operating executive to manage the program.

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Applications for the Cornerstone Grant are accepted each year from October 1 through December 31. 

Contact:

Shane Johnson, Chief Marketing Officer: [email protected]

Eddie Espinosa, Community Programs Director: [email protected]

American Alpine Club and Winter Wildlands Alliance Celebrate Restoration of Key Components to NEPA

Photo by @ofallnationsmedia

The American Alpine Club (AAC) and Winter Wildlands Alliance (WWA) are pleased to announce that the Biden Administration took an important step towards restoring critical parts of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental law.

Over the past two years, our #ProtectNEPA campaign has fought to protect wild winter landscapes and climbing areas across the country. Together, we sued the Trump administration for gutting NEPA in 2020 and then petitioned the Biden administration in 2021 to take action to repair the law by restoring critical regulatory requirements that were removed in 2020.

The White House Council on Environmental Quality heard our requests, and began a two phase process to reverse the damaging 2020 changes to the regulations that implement NEPA. This week, the CEQ published a final “Phase 1” rule effectively overturning three parts of the 2020 Rule, restoring key pieces of NEPA and requiring that federal agencies:

• Consider the direct, indirect, and cumulative effects of a proposed project, including an analysis of how greenhouse gas emissions from an action may impact climate change;

• No longer prioritize the goals of an applicant over the public interest when developing the Purpose and Need or alternatives of a proposed action;

• Give the public a greater voice in the environmental review process for projects on federal lands;

• Consider the regulations as a “floor” and not a “ceiling” when considering the value of more protective regulations.

The final rule announced on Tuesday, April 19, 2022, will take effect on May 20, 2022, but it only restores some of the provisions from the original 1978 regulations. The AAC and WWA encourage the CEQ to act quickly in tackling Phase 2 of restoring NEPA, where they must consider how to correct the broader procedural changes to the regulations. We urge the CEQ to ensure that the voices of communities most impacted by environmental harm, as well as the commitments of the administration to address the climate crisis, are accurately reflected in their final rule.

Photo by Jeff Deikis

“This Phase 1 Rule is an important first step in restoring NEPA”, said Hilary Eisen, Policy Director with Winter Wildlands Alliance. “We look forward to continuing to work with the CEQ as they move forward into Phase 2, to ensure that NEPA continues to give the public a voice in federal decisions and provide environmental safeguards for generations to come.”   

“Efforts from the previous administration to dismantle NEPA left our public lands, communities and climate vulnerable to ill-informed and biased decision-making processes,” said Taylor Luneau, Policy Manager for the American Alpine Club. “This is a significant win for the outdoor recreation community and an important step towards restoring the strength and potential of NEPA to address our nation's most pressing environmental needs.”

We are grateful to the many thousands of outdoor advocates who took action to #ProtectNEPA and look forward to continuing to partner with the Biden Administration to ensure that the interests of the climbing and backcountry skiing communities remain front of mind in federal decision making.

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Contact for more information:

Taylor Luneau, Policy Manager, American Alpine Club, [email protected]

Hilary Eisen, Policy Director, Winter Wildlands Alliance, [email protected]

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