The Earth Island Institute is a left-of-center environmentalist organization that supports the preservation of federal forests and animals inhabiting federal forests. ¹ The Earth Island Institute is openly opposed to the existence of the federal Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Timber Sales program. ² The Earth Island Institute seeks to prevent the legal and permitted harvesting of timber on federal lands through petitions, litigation, and publications designed to garner support amongst the public to terminate the BLM’s Timber Sales program. ³

Earth Island has opposed the use of zero carbon nuclear energy. ⁴

Finances

In 2017 Earth Island Institute received $12,436,028 in grants⁵ and possessed $14,143,244 in net assets after accounting for all liabilities. ⁶

Donors

Earth Island institute has received funding from a number of institutional environmentalist and other left-progressive institutional donors. In 2017, they included:

• The California Wellness Foundation provided Earth Island Institute with a $150,000 grant. ⁷
• The Annenberg Foundation provided Earth Island Institute with a $100,000 grant. ⁸
• the Craigslist Charitable Fund provided Earth Island Institute with a $100,000 grant. ⁹
• the Conservation Food and Health Foundation provided Earth Island Institute with a $25,000 grant. ¹⁰
• the Causecast Foundation provided Earth Island Institute with a $22,000 grant. ¹¹
• the Chamberlin Family Foundation provided Earth Island Institute with a $10,000 grant. ¹²
• the Clovis Foundation provided Earth Island Institute with a $10,000 grant. ¹³
• the Barrios Trust provided Earth Island Institute with a $5,000 grant. ¹⁴
• The Clif Bar Family Foundation provided Earth Island Institute with a $3,500 grant. ¹⁵
• The Tomchin Family Charitable Trust provided Earth Island Institute with a $3,000 grant. ¹⁶
• The Albert and Pamela Bendich Charitable Trust gave Earth Island Institute a $1,000 grant. ¹⁷

Litigation

In 2012 the Earth Island Institute joined with the Center for Biological Diversity and petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to list the California/Oregon and Black Hills (South Dakota) sub-species of the black-backed woodpecker as a threatened or endangered species under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). ¹⁸ Such a listing would in effect prevent timber harvesting in area considered the black-backed woodpecker’s critical habitat. ¹⁹

In 2014 the Earth Island Institute joined with the Wildlife Nature Institute and petitioned FWS to list the California spotted owl as a threatened or endangered species under the Federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). ²⁰ Such a listing would in effect prevent timber harvesting in areas considered the California spotted owl’s critical habitat. ²¹

On April 15, 2020 Earthjustice, joined with Sierra Forest Legacy, Center for Biological Diversity, and Defenders of Wildlife to sue the Trump administration for rejecting the designation of the California spotted owl as an endangered species. ²² Neither species was ever formally registered as endangered under the Obama administration. ²³

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

Earth Island was one of more than 600 co-signing organizations on a January 2019 open letter to Congress titled “Legislation to Address the Urgent Threat of Climate Change.” The signatories declared their support for new laws to bring about “100 percent decarbonization” of the transportation sector but denounced nuclear power as an example of “dirty energy” that should not be included in any legislation promoting the use of so-called “renewable energy.” ²⁴

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and as of 2021 accounted for 19 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ²⁵ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ²⁶

Leadership

The Earth Island Institute was created in 1982 by David Brower, Chad Hanson, and David Orr. ²⁷ Currently, Josh Floum serves as the president of the Institute and David Phillips serves as the executive director. Directors include Michael Mitrani, Deborah Sivas, Kenneth Brower, Jennifer Snyder, Alex Giedt, Barbara Brower, John De Graaf, Will Green, Francisco Martinez, Ariella St. Pierre, Camilla Fox, Julia Cohen and Sarah Diefendorf. ²⁸

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