Northern Rockies Loan Fund

Marine Protected Areas

Western Conservation

Sustainable Fisheries

California Water Foundation

Additional Programs, Studies, and Projects

Building Conservation Legacies

While no two programs of Resources Legacy Fund or Resources Legacy Fund Foundation are the same, there are important similarities. All of the programs we implement focus on the long-term protection of natural resources. All of them rely heavily on a commitment to meaningful collaboration. And all are recognizable for their quality and effectiveness.

The following links offer details of some of the programs we’ve been fortunate to help design and implement:

Northern Rockies Loan Fund. Providing bridge financing to acquire properties promoting the rich diversity and significant landscapes of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, Idaho Panhandle, High Divide, and the Crown of the Continent.

Marine Protected Areas. Supporting state, nonprofit, and private sector efforts to ensure marine biodiversity in the waters off California’s coast.

Western Conservation. Protecting the West’s iconic landscapes and valuable natural resources from threats including population growth and climate change.

Sustainable Fisheries Fund. Promoting sustainable fisheries, primarily through participation of fishing, conservation, and other organizations in the eco-certification program of the Marine Stewardship Council.

California Water Foundation. Promoting science-based, integrated resource management to support sustainable improvements in water management to meet California’s 21st century economic and ecological water needs.

Additional Programs, Studies, and Projects (back to top)

This list of additional programs, studies, and projects gives a sense of the scope of our work.

Bay Area Conservation Initiative—RLF worked with the Gordon and Betty Moore and David and Lucile Packard foundations to create a program that supports collaborations among land trusts to catalyze a coordinated regional approach to land conservation in the Bay Area that is focused on strategic deployment of state bond funds, as well as other public and private funds, to protect large-scale, high-value habitat and linkages. The Bay Area Conservation Initiative seeks the protection of these high-priority landscapes to create a more systematic and lasting level of protection and enjoyment for the people of California and support the long-term goal of sustaining a healthy Bay Area ecosystem. The program employs a range of strategies, including engaging in science-based, regional conservation planning; convening land trusts and public agencies to prioritize efforts and design a collective conservation vision; supporting pre-acquisition activities that develop priority projects; mobilizing conservation organization participation in the development of transportation and land use policy; and catalyzing key initial acquisitions.

California Coastal and Marine Initiative. A multi-year program begun on behalf of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation in 2003 dedicated to improving the coastal and marine health of California’s Central Coast and generating more effective statewide policies and programs to enhance the protection of coasts and oceans for future generations. See a summary of the revised program strategy for a more detailed description. The program currently accepts letters of inquiry for grants.

Children and Urban River Parkways—Some of California’s most ethnically diverse and underserved communities reside alongside urban rivers, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Fresno, and Modesto. Often, these communities have very little access to parks or open space. RLF works to link these communities with more traditional conservation interests, establishing unique partnerships focused on the revitalization and protection of urban river parkways. These collaborations create opportunities for safe outdoor recreation and provide hands-on environmental education, job skills training, civic engagement, and valuable assets for neighboring communities. RLF’s goal is to help advance establishment and stability of river parkways as a vital tool to improve the quality of life in underserved communities, support the growth of new and diverse urban conservation movements, and reinforce the emergence of new voices for conservation.

Climate Change Public Education Program—California has led the nation in addressing climate change by passing landmark laws that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help ensure the thoughtful, sustainable growth of its communities. These policies have the potential not only to help the communities in California and elsewhere adapt to climate change, but revive them as well by creating new industries and jobs around clean energy and other new, “green” technologies. RLF and its consultants craft strategies that support the implementation of these policies and their potential application throughout the western United States. RLF supports communications, public opinion research, and administrative advocacy experts to help philanthropic investments drive meaningful policy development and to ensure that these new approaches revitalize the state’s economy, clean up its air, build livable communities, and protect the health of its children and families.

Northern Sierra Partnership. (www.northernsierrapartnership.org) Under the leadership of the Morgan Family Foundation and with support from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, five organizations have come together in a unique alliance to protect watersheds, recreational lands open to the public, working ranches and forests, and other natural resources in Sierra Valley, Genesee Valley, Upper Little Truckee River, Sierra Crest, Martis Valley, Donner Summit, and other important landscapes. The Northern Sierra Partnership will link these goals and public policy initiatives to reduce the risk of wildfire, build sustainable local economies, and contribute to an enduring relationship between people, land and prosperity. Partners include the Feather River Land Trust, Sierra Business Council, The Nature Conservancy, Truckee Donner Land Trust, and The Trust for Public Land.

Northwest Mexico Land Conservation. The Gulf of California and surrounding states—Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora, Sinaloa, and Nayarit—are world renowned for the diversity and importance of their coastal and marine habitats. The Northwest Mexico Land Conservation program is dedicated to maintaining landscape integrity in this region through the long-term protection of important coastal areas. In response to requests from leading Mexican conservation organizations, and made possible by the collaboration and leadership of the Marisla, Packard, and Sandler foundations, this multi-year program is guided by the ongoing strategic advice of a Mexican advisory board, the Grupo de Trabajo, and facilitated by RLF. RLF provides support for communications, organizational capacity and effectiveness, conservation science, and other strategies that complement the land protection priorities.

 Para información en español, oprima aquí.

Renewable Energy and Land Conservation—Through this program, RLF is working to ensure that the development of renewable energy on public and private lands is done responsibly, so renewable energy siting and transmission is coupled with the conservation of significant natural resources. Focusing initially on the California desert and Nevada, RLF has engaged a coalition of conservation groups, philanthropic entities, clean energy advocates, solar industry companies, and other key stakeholders to establish a model approach to the development of renewable energy. Additionally, RLF consultants are engaged with federal and state policy experts to help craft and implement short-term projects that access federal stimulus funds, and a long-term effort to promote the commitment among state and federal agencies as well as energy stakeholders to a scientifically derived, consensus-based plan for renewable energy development addressing factors such as appropriate siting and the collection of royalties from energy production to fund conservation.

San Francisco Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project. (www.southbayrestoration.org) In 2003, with funding from the Goldman Fund, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, RLF helped federal and state agencies purchase more than 16,000 acres of commercial salt ponds and property ringing South San Francisco Bay and in Napa County. Since that time, RLF has managed philanthropic funds supporting initial stewardship and restoration planning, pilot projects, and restoration science.

Since 2003, RLF has supported Pelican Media, led by Judy Irving and Mark Bittner, in the photographic documentation of this project – capturing the original condition of the salt-making operations and ponds, restoration activities, public use, and wildlife. This archive chronicles the dramatic transformation of land and the return of a variety of native species, habitat, and public use to these areas. You can view the collection here. (If you would like to use one of these photographs free of charge for nonprofit or educational purposes, please contact Judy Irving for an un-watermarked file and correct crediting information.)

Wildlands Acquisition Program—Through this program, RLF supports the acquisition of inholdings within California desert parks, desert wilderness areas, and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park while strengthening the capacity of organizations seeking public financing for land protection and working to preserve California’s desert landscape. There remain tens of thousands of acres of private land within the five million acres of California’s three desert national parks—Joshua Tree National Park, Mojave National Preserve, and Death Valley National Park—that form significant threats to the parks from development and uncontrolled land uses such as dumping, land clearing, and off-road vehicle traffic. RLF is assisting groups in acquiring inholdings within the parks to consolidate park management and help defuse the threat of development. Additionally, the 70,000 acres of inholdings within desert wilderness areas continue to threaten wilderness values and resources. Roads that access inholdings create ongoing wilderness management problems, thus consolidation and expansion of protection remains crucial. The program also supports efforts to protect Anza Borrego Desert State Park. The park contains critical habitat for several threatened species, and management of the wilderness landscape remains problematic and expensive due to complications caused by inholdings. To maximize the existing protection of wildlands within the park, RLF is prioritizing and acquiring the most important remaining private inholdings.

Preserving Wild California (closed). A program of Resources Legacy Fund Foundation, this was a five-year, $150 million program designed to preserve California’s wild lands and rivers, and to ensure their permanent protection by investing in systematic acquisitions of land and fostering supportive policies, organizations, and constituencies. Preserving Wild California offered grants and loans and entered into contracts for land acquisition, planning, policy and advocacy, constituency building, nonprofit organizational capacity building, and stewardship and restoration. Among other important outcomes, efforts significantly supported by the program led to the protection through Wilderness designation of more than one million acres of California wildlands. A comprehensive external assessment of the Preserving Wild California program, conducted by Dr. Steven Yaffee of the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan, can be viewed here.

Conserving California Landscapes Initiative (closed). A five-year, $175 million initiative of the David and Lucile Packard Foundation that served as a magnet for $764 million in leveraged funds, leading to the protection of more than 420,000 acres of beautiful, productive, and richly diverse lands in the Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, and Central Coast of California.

Donor-Initiated Conservation Projects. Several independent funds devoted to conservation opportunities based on the requirements and wishes of donors.