The Brainerd Foundation -

Funding

We fund organizations that protect the environment of the Northwest and build broad support for conservation.

Photo courtesy of Montana Environmental Information Center

Conservation policy

Policy gains that ensure protection of our region's air, land, and water.

Learn more »

Photo by John Lambing

Place-based conservation

Landscape and wildlife protection through community engagement and empowerment.

Learn more »

Photo by Michael Scott

Conservation capacity

Building upon past investments and growing the next generation of conservation.

Learn more »

Recent successes

Photo by Angela Milani, for Round River Conservation Studies

Yellowstone grizzly protections restored

Federal protections have been restored to a population of grizzly bears living in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, effectively calling off grizzly hunts in Wyoming and Idaho. The U.S. District Court ruling identified the isolation of the Yellowstone grizzlies as a key factor, labeling the Trump administration's analysis of future threats to the population as "arbitrary and capricious."

Go »

Photo by skeeze/Pixabay

Canadian court revokes approval of Trans Mountain Pipeline for Orcas.

Canada's National Energy Board had approved expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline, claiming the acknowledged likely negative impact on critically endangered southern-resident killer whales was beyond it's scope. The national Court of Appeals disagrees, revoking approval of the project, a ruling hailed on both sides of the border by First Nations, U.S. tribes, environmental advocates.

Go »

Photo by Daniel Phelps

Community Groups force EPA to end delay of Chemical Disaster Rule

Community groups, represented by Earthjustice, won key protections that safeguard the public and first responders from chemical disasters. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) delay of implementation of EPA’s Chemical Disaster Rule was unlawful. Industry will now need to implement the life-saving protections of that rule.

Go »

Read about more grantee successes »

Meet some of our grantees

Soda Mountain Wilderness Council, Inc.

League of Conservation Voters Education Fund

National Wildlife Federation, Rocky Mountains Center

University of Montana, Environmental Studies Program

Crag Law Center

Headwaters Economics

Grist

Resource Media

Meet more of our grantees »

What we've learned

Photo by Allison Carver

Letting go...and moving forward

After 23 years, moving an office is about more than furniture and boxes. For our co-director, Keiki Kehoe, it was also about reflecting on more than two decades of work and experiencing firsthand what our grantees have been telling us for a while now -- that the very nature of the workplace is changing.

Go »

Photo by Gael Varoquaux

How do we win against weaponized chaos?

One year into the current -- very strange -- political reality, and inspired by David Domke, we asked the experts at Resource Media to share their advice for nonprofit communicators in this time of the "new normal." Their recommendations were not silver bullets, but rather rock solid reminders of the lessons we must continue to reinforce.

Go »

Public Lands, Common Ground: How an experimental program in Oregon is empowering new voices for conservation

Learn more about how one of our grantees is channeling new interest in keeping public lands in public hands, experimenting with sharing power, and including more diverse communities in the process.

Go »