The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

3M and The Nature Conservancy have enjoyed a partnership spanning two decades. We have worked together locally and internationally, on business councils and land transactions, and with the personal commitment and involvement of 3M employees. In the early 1990s, 3M generously supported the Conservancy's Last Great Places campaign with a gift of lands worth $3.4 million. In 2001, 3M made a substantial commitment to The Conservancy's Campaign for Conservation and pledged not only a gift of over $5 million but also corporate leadership through 3M executives.  Today, 3M and the 3M Foundation continue to support the Conservancy's land protection efforts domestically and internationally.  Most recently, we have worked together to protect priority areas in Australia, British Columbia and Texas.

About 3M

3M is a $16 billion diversified technology company with leading positions in health care, safety, electronics, telecommunications, industrial, consumer and office, and other markets. 3M Company, formerly known as Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company, makes everything from masking tape to asthma inhalers. Well-known brands include Scotchgard fabric protectors, Post-it Notes, Scotch-Brite scouring products, and Scotch tapes. Headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, the company has operations in more than 60 countries and serves customers in nearly 200 countries. 3M marks its 100th anniversary this year.

Recent Updates

In 2009 and 2010 the 3M Foundation donated $1,500,000 to the Conservancy to be put towards the acquisition and management of the Conservancy's land acquisition projects in Australia, British Columbia and Texas.

In Texas, the 32,000-acre Davis Mountains Preserve (with conservation easements on 65,830 acres of adjoining property) includes Mount Livermore, the summit of the Davis Mountains.  The wild and remote Davis Mountains are considered one of the most scenic areas of Texas.  Indeed it is one of the most biologically diverse.  Rising above the Chinhuahuan desert, the range forms a unique "sky island" surrounded by the lowland desert.  Animals and plants living above 5,000 feet are isolated from other similar mountain ranges by vast distances. These are true ecological islands, preserving living remnants that occur otherwise nowhere else in Texas.  It encompasses the heart of a functioning landscape with intact watersheds and a unique assemblage of animals and plants.  3M Foundation's support of this project enabled the purchase of a crucial property within the landscape.

Together with our independent partner organization, The Nature Conservancy of Canada, we are seeking to effectively preserve, maintain and enhance this property for the benefit of people and nature. The lush valleys, rugged peaks, tumbling creeks, and deep lakes of British Columbia’s Selkirk Mountains are both astoundingly beautiful and ecologically important. In the heart of this incredible mountain range lies a 136,000-acre (55,000-hectare) privately owned property known as Darkwoods.  Here, wildlife, including one of the last herds of Mountain Caribou in the world, finds refuge, and rare plants survive. 3M Foundation’s support of this massive project will sequester carbon, protect freshwater and secure habitat for threatened and endangered species. 

In June 2008, the 3M Foundation announced their latest support of the Conservancy. 3M's gift will support The Nature Conservancy's Campaign for a Sustainable Planet. The campaign will work with partners, such as 3M, to protect at least 10% of every major habitat type on Earth by 2015. 3M's $1 million pledge will support the protection, sustainable management, economic development, reforestation and acquisition of forested lands in Brazil, China and Mexico.

Conservation Highlights

3M is helping to protect:

• Minnesota's Tallgrass Aspen Parkland
• Minnesota's Ordway/Glacial Lakes
• Texas's Lower Rio Grande Valley
• Brazil's Atlantic Forest
• China's Chongming Dongtan
• Maya Forest