Orvis - Conservation Programs

Conservation Programs

Orvis's long record of conservation activism began with Charles Orvis's work in fisheries conservation and management in the late 19th century and has continued since. In 1994, Leigh Perkins, Orvis CEO from 1965 to 1992, received the Chevron Corporation's Chevron Conservation Award for lifetime achievements in conservation, perhaps the most prestigious such award given in the United States. Since then, under CEO Perk Perkins, Orvis has increased both the magnitude and breadth of its conservation program, and annually donates five percent (over $10 million in the last ten years) of pre-tax profits to a great variety of conservation projects.

Working in cooperation with leading professional conservation groups including the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, The Nature Conservancy, Trout Unlimited, and many others, Orvis has successfully completed dozens of projects, regularly launching matching-grant campaigns in its catalogs and in the pages of the Orvis News. Recent programs include re-establishment of a migratory whooping crane flock; preservation of public access to the famous Henry's Fork trout fishery: restoration of a native golden trout population in California's Sierra Nevada Mountains; protection of long-billed curlew habitat in Montana; protection of songbird migratory corridor in Jamaica; sea turtle preservation, and the restoration of trout habitat in on the Orvis home river, the Battenkill.

Orvis helped originate Casting for Recovery, a national breast-cancer support and education program; Orvis's matching-grant program has raised $300,000 for this program.