Grantee Profiles

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Montana and Alaska State Conservation Voter Programs: Providing a unified voice, gaining ground

Web site: http://www.akvoice.org/

Web site: http://www.mcvedfund.org/

There is no carte blanche for policymakers in Montana and Alaska thanks to the efforts of Brainerd grantees Montana Conservation Voters Education Fund (MCVEF), the Alaska Conservation Alliance (ACA) and their allies. By helping state-based conservation groups articulate strong conservation messages, MCVEF and ACA show policymakers that they will be held accountable to environment-related campaign promises in their respective states and applauded when they do.

MCVEF, for example, monitors policymakers from Montana's city halls to the state legislature, from local commissions to the national congressional delegation. MCVEF's focus on the local level has resulted in improved planning and zoning decisions, as well as a heightened sense that good environmental policy starts close to home.

But, the vast array of environmental issues can be overwhelming to both decisionmakers and the general public. So, MCVEF and ACA have led their states' conservation communities in selecting a handful of salient issues that speak to widely-held values and are critical to the health and well-being of citizens in each state.

Targeted, timely and specific, these "common agendas" have attracted and engaged new allies - including business and economic interests - to strong environmental policy. Focus and collaboration have permitted the conservation community to maximize its resources, provide a unified voice in policy and public education efforts, and, most importantly, gain ground on environmental protection. Both MCVEF and ACA have played a critical, facilitative role in building, supporting, and guiding their states' policy agendas.

In Alaska, for example "Aligning yourself with conservation interests can be politically risky," Troll acknowledges. "But, poll results show that people's attitudes are softening towards the conservation community. We've been making a conscious effort to show a more reasoned approach and talk to those mainstream values - it is better to speak to the values than to the political 'hot button' issues here in Alaska." Consequently, decisionmakers are more eager to seek conservation community support.

In Montana, conservation-minded voters recently turned out in record numbers, whether they belonged to a conservation group or not. And to keep Montana's conservation community accountable to the public, MCVEF capitalized on the opportunity to poll these same voters on their views on renewable energy and private property rights. Additionally, evidence of the effectiveness of the collaborative efforts of Montana's conservation community include demonstrated public support for a renewable energy standard and disapproval of measures that would have weakened Montana's environmental protection regulations.

MCVEF and ACA's success in educating voters and holding policymakers accountable informs - and has been informed by - the work of other state leagues. Innovation is "transmitted like wildfire," remarks Ed Zuckerman, with the national League of Conservation Voters Education Fund (LCVEF), also a grantee. By providing tools, training and coaching, LCVEF serves a key role in linking the state leagues and giving them a forum to share resources and best practices. Thanks to coordination and support from the LCVEF, ACA's outreach director spent some hands-on mentoring time in MCVEF's offices, learning how their programs run. Similarly, Montana's "conservation coalition" was inspired by and modeled after Washington State's policy successes in the previous years.

Observes Zuckerman, "LCVEF is only effective if the state leagues are effective. If we help [the state leagues] be more organized internally, they can be more effective in their mission - advocating on behalf of the environmental community to bring about stronger environmental policies." ACA's Outreach Director, Caitlin Higgins, concurs, "LCVEF makes it possible for ACA to do incredibly important change work to move a pro-conservation agenda forward and enable the environmental community to speak with one voice."

"The states are clearly the 'laboratories of democracy,'" notes Gene Karpinski, executive director of LCVEF, "And state league victories - in building capacity, in enacting pro-environment policies, and in electing pro-environment officials - [are] the most critical building block to ensuring success ultimately at the national level as well."


Note: As a private foundation, the Brainerd Foundation cannot and does not earmark any portion of its grants for use in influencing legislation (lobbying).

Profiled 2007