American conservation has always been grounded in place. Many of our earliest wildlife laws grew from hunters, anglers, private landowners, and communities confronting the loss of wildlife and habitat in the places they knew best. Polluted rivers, disappearing species, and the loss of treasured landscapes later built the public demand that produced the National Environmental Policy Act, Clean Water Act, and Endangered Species Act. National policy followed local action because people could see what was being lost at home — and organized to do something about it.

For those of us who began our careers in conservation policy in the late 1990s, that place-based model was already beginning to change. The bipartisan coalition behind America’s bedrock environmental laws was weakening, and the conservation community understandably invested more heavily in national policy and national advocacy. Capacity and resources that once supported leaders rooted in communities, landscapes, and watersheds shifted elsewhere.

The people closest to the work kept working. They restored streams, protected working lands, opened recreational access, worked with farmers and ranchers, managed forests, and rebuilt fisheries. But they were too often asked to implement conservation projects rather than help shape the policy behind them. 

The U.S. Nature Initiative’s Conservation Landscape Assessment engaged more than 200 conservation leaders in eight regions. One finding came through across regions: the field has meaningful capacity to deliver conservation on the ground, but the state-based campaign infrastructure needed to turn that work into durable policy is uneven — strong in some states, thin or missing in others. The assessment identified six building blocks for durable conservation success. Few places have all six.

I came away with a renewed conviction: the next generation of American conservation needs to return to where it started — close to home. Durable national policy rarely materializes from Washington alone. It is built on constituencies, trusted messengers, and bipartisan support cultivated over years in the places where people live, work, hunt, fish, farm, and raise their families.

Build on what’s already working

We don’t always need to invent something new. Basin-scale restoration partnerships, shared stewardship agreements, dedicated conservation funds, voluntary working-lands programs, water leasing mechanisms, collaborative forest restoration, and locally driven recreational access initiatives are already working across the country. The opportunity is to strengthen the people and institutions behind them, and give them the resources and support to grow.

Start with local leaders rooted in place

The people who live and work in a landscape know which programs are working and which are not. My most memorable and successful Hill advocacy has involved sportsmen and women, ranchers, timber owners, local mayors, and business owners. They know what resonates in their communities and across their landscapes and watersheds. We should invest in their ability not only to deliver projects, but to shape policy.

Connect conservation to what people already care about

Unlike those of us who consider ourselves DC policy wonks, most people don’t wake up thinking about conservation policy. But they do care whether their drinking water is clean. Whether their community floods. Whether their daughter can carry the family farm into the next generation. Whether their grandchildren can pull trout out of the same fishing hole where their own grandfather taught them to fish. Whether the forests around their town can withstand the next fire season. And whether the elk on their public lands will still be there twenty years from now.

Build policy through coalitions rooted in community

Hunters and anglers agreed to tax themselves through Pittman-Robertson and Dingell-Johnson, creating enduring funding streams for fish, wildlife, and public access. That approach endures because the people affected helped build it. In Florida, the multistakeholder coalition behind the Florida Wildlife Corridor Act built the communications discipline and relationships needed to sustain its campaign across multiple legislative cycles, culminating in bipartisan passage in 2021. The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Blackfoot Challenge, and Colorado River Collaborative similarly demonstrate how locally driven coalitions can translate shared interests into durable conservation outcomes.

Reinvesting in people and places

It is time to reinvest in local conservation and campaign leadership, durable state and regional coalitions, and dedicated funding mechanisms that can survive political cycles. The people implementing conservation on the ground are essential architects of conservation policy, and should be treated that way.

The path to more durable conservation begins with the things that matter in Americans’ everyday lives. Clean water. Healthy lands. Abundant fish and wildlife. Safe communities. Working landscapes that are economically viable for working families. Places to hunt, fish, hike, birdwatch, and paddle. The American Nature Strategy is built on that foundation: investing in the coalitions, campaign talent, and bipartisan champions rooted in place, so state and local wins can ladder up to national conservation that lasts.