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Double your conservation dollar!
Our board will match your online donation dollar for dollar. We need your gift today to defend and expand funding for conservation.
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Photo by Royce Bair
 | Help Us Win Campaigns
Around the Country
Support for conservation funding crosses party lines and geographic boundaries. Even in a deep recession and with increased opposition from anti-tax groups, measures continue to pass (see below). And, surveys show that voters care about conservation in communities as different as a conservative city in Florida and the "left coast" state of Oregon.
The list of places bold enough to put a measure on the ballot in tough times is growing. Here are some of the efforts that your gift, doubled today, will help support.
-- A $5 million bond in Ormond Beach, Florida, for a public beachfront park, on a property slated for development before the real estate crash. A recent poll in this Republican-leaning area showed that voters favor the measure by a 2-1 margin.
-- A $10 million bond in Maine to replenish the Land for Maine's Future program.
-- An Iowa constitutional amendment that takes a first step toward establishing a permanent funding source for protecting water quality, conserving agricultural soils, and enhancing natural areas.
-- An Oregon petition drive is close to putting on the ballot a measure that extends and makes permanent the financing for the statewide Parks and Natural Resources Fund.
-- Tigard, Oregon, which narrowly failed to pass a $20 million parks and environment bond last year, is considering a more targeted $15 million bond for environmentally sensitive lands. |
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Recent Ballot-box Successes
On May 18, Manchester-by-the-Sea, Massachusetts, approved an increase in the Community Preservation Act (CPA) property tax surcharge from .5 to 1.5 percent -- the first time a surcharge increase has passed in a bad economy.
Dighton, Massachusetts, approved the CPA in April.
Suburban Denver voters extended a levy for the South Suburban Park and Recreation District. Although an anti-tax group actively opposed the measure, 66 percent voted "yes."
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