Looking Back with Pride and Ahead with Determination

Utilizing our Working Forests, we acquired more than 15,000 acres of white pine forest in Maine from the Chadbourne family, whose forestry business dates back 12 generations. Once permanently conserved, this historic landscape and critical watershed will be protected from development, ensuring that both the climate-resilient wildlife habitat and the Chadbourne family’s legacy of responsible forestry will live on.

In 2020 we acquired 72,440 acres—in one of Minnesota’s largest private land conservation acquisitions in state history—and named it Minnesota’s Heritage Forest. The purchase buys time to develop permanent conservation strategies that will preserve the working forestland and safeguard jobs while benefiting our environment and mitigating climate change. Approximately 32,000 acres of the forest are within the reservation boundaries of two bands of the Minnesota Ojibwe (Chippewa) Tribe. As part of this work, we are dedicated to a future where they own critical sections of the land to sustainably manage for economic, cultural and environmental purposes.

Ensuring History Is Remembered and Communities Are Empowered

The Conservation Fund is committed to protecting lands important to America’s history and ensuring healthy outdoor spaces in underserved communities. We are working to ensure that our projects are evaluated and implemented in a manner that prioritizes access and equity.

One of the final Civil War battles was fought at Fort Blakeley in southern Alabama, where Confederate forces were resoundingly defeated by Union troops that included the highest concentration of U.S. Colored Troops in any one battle. Preserving the land where these soldiers fought honors their role in ending the war, while also expanding historical research opportunities and safeguarding one of Alabama’s most significantly endangered ecosystems.

Funding the Future of Conservation in America

The Conservation Fund works strategically so that current and future generations will be able to connect with and benefit from the natural world even as populations grow, the climate changes and development expands. Our Revolving Fund flows in and out of projects every two years on average, and this continues in perpetuity—conserving acre after acre. Our innovative finance solutions set us apart from other environmental organizations.

We acquired a pristine 35-acre parcel of privately owned and unprotected land located at the south entrance of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming using money from our Revolving Fund. This gave the National Park Service the time it needed to get Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) funding in hand, purchase the land from us, and officially add it to Grand Teton in 2020. This former inholding features a stunning view of the Teton Range and is an important corridor for the park’s diverse wildlife.

Utilizing capital from our Revolving Fund, we purchased a 150-acre property within the borders of Glacier Bay National Park with pristine ecology and cultural value to the Tlingit people. Known as Berg Bay, this property is now officially part of Glacier Bay National Park after the National Park Service acquired from us it with LWCF funding in 2020.

The Navajo River Watershed in southwest Colorado is comprised of nearly 65,000 acres of mountains, forests, and rivers spread over 10 privately held ranches. In 2020 the final piece of the Navajo River Watershed was protected through a conservation easement funded by LWCF and a private foundation. Now these lands remain as private working ranches that will never be fragmented by development.