Joe Hankins

Vice President, West Virginia State Director

Joe joined The Conservation Fund in 1992 to develop aquaculture, sustainable rural economic development and technology outreach in Appalachia. Today he provides leadership for our land conservation partnership work in West Virginia. Joe currently serves as a Trustee on the West Virginia DNR Wildlife Endowment Board and as Trustee and Chair of the West Virginia Outdoor Heritage Conservation Fund. Working with colleagues and partners in 2016 Joe helped to protect over 32,000 acres in southern West Virginia for elk reintroduction, wildlife habitat and public outdoor access. The project is the largest single conservation acquisition and conveyance in West Virginia state agency history.

Joe is known for bringing a biologist’s eye and an entrepreneur’s passion to the modern issues in conservation. For two decades he led the Fund’s Freshwater Institute to an internationally recognized research and consulting program focused on water reuse technology in food production. Joe has worked with major pulp and paper companies in mill closure and remediation of wetlands in Arkansas and Mississippi, aquatic resource monitoring and species sampling in major river systems in Indiana and Illinois, and led a team developing an in-lieu fee mitigation program for Atlantic salmon in Maine.

Joe is active in local and regional work-groups focused on the strategic importance of water, community water infrastructure planning, and life cycle assessment. Joe is author or co-author of over forty peer-reviewed publications. He holds an M.S. in Environmental Biology from Hood College and a B.S. in General Science from Purdue University. Joe resides in Rockymarsh Run watershed and works from Shepherdstown, WV.

Contact:  jhankins@conservationfund.org     Phone: 304-876-2815, ext. 212    Office: West Virginia