Twenty-five years ago, The Conservation Fund was founded by a small group of business-savvy conservationists who wanted to bring the best of investment principles to the challenge of conserving America's magnificent land legacy. Since then, with creativity and discipline, the Fund has protected more than 6.5 million acres of forests, farms, wildlife habitat, and recreation lands. We have helped communities plan for growth, supported sustainable small business development, and invested more than $5 million in training, education and leadership development for the next generation of conservation leaders. For a relatively small organization on the national stage, we are proud to have made a very large impression on the American landscape.

Photo Gallery: 25 Highlights

Browse these images and learn about some of the highlights of our 25 years in conservation.

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  5 Great Ideas: The Revolving Fund
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  5 Great Ideas: Conservation Leadership Network
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  5 Great Ideas: Recirculating Aquaculture Systems
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  5 Great Ideas: Natural Capital Investment Fund
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  5 Great Ideas: Green Infrastructure
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  5 Communities: Milwaukee, Wisconsin
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  5 Communities: Fort A.P. Hill, Virginia
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  5 Communities: Resourceful Communities, North Carolina
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  5 Communities: Metro Atlanta, Georgia
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  5 Communities: Bonneville County, Idaho
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  5 Working Lands: Champion Forest
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  5 Working Lands: Big River and Salmon Creek
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  5 Working Lands: Bair Family Ranch
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  5 Working Lands: Cottonwood Ranches
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  5 Working Lands: Hager Farm
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  5 Wild Havens: Southwest Alaska Salmon Habitat Initiative
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  5 Wild Havens: Path of the Pronghorn
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  5 Wild Havens: Rocky Fork, Tennessee
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  5 Wild Havens: Mississippi Flyway
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  5 Wild Havens: Big Thicket National Preserve
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  5 Historic Places: Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail
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  5 Historic Places: Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail
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  5 Historic Places: Minidoka National Historic Site
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  5 Historic Places: Antietam National Battlefield
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  5 Historic Places: Petersburg Battlefield

Check out these facts about our accomplishments over the last quarter century:

 

• We have completed 141 projects in historic parks and districts, 93 projects in national parks, 338 projects benefiting national wildlife refuges and 109 projects in state parks.

 

• In 2009, we protected our 300,000th acre in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed—conserving lands valued at more than $631 million.

 

• At our 10 year anniversary we had saved 1 million acres, but only four short years later, we had reached 2 million acres. Since then, we have conserved an additional 4 million acres. As of July 2010 we have protected more than 6.5 million acres!

 



 

Our largest project in terms of acres was the acquisition in 2005 of 851,000 acres along a 100-mile boundary of the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in northern Arizona.

 

 

 

• No project is too small for us! Our smallest project was a critical acquisition of almost 1 acre for the City of Atlanta’s Vine City Park.

 

• Regionally, we have conserved the most property in the West at 1.6 million acres, with the Southwest at 1.1 million acres and the Southeast at 1 million acres falling closely behind. Financially, we have spent the most money— more than $1.8 billion—in the Southeast.

 

• We have completed the most projects in Florida with 223. Close behind are Maryland at 158, North Carolina at 143, and Colorado at 135.



 

• As part of our Civil War Battlefield Campaign, we have conserved 9,323 acres at Civil War battlefield sites in 14 states.

 

• We have conserved 1,267,052 acres of forestland, 1,095,559 acres of natural areas and 1,861,292 acres of critical wildlife habitat.

 

• We have conserved more than 2.6 million acres in collaboration with our federal partners—more than a million acres each with the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. With our state and local partners, we have conserved more than 3.5 million acres.

 

• Since 1993, we have made 149 loans assisting local land trusts through our Land Trust Loan Fund Program. We've helped land trusts protect 94,000 acres valued at nearly $197 million.

 

What Our Future Holds...

We will continue to work hard to ensure that conservation dollars go "in the ground"—we have the highest program allocation—97%—and lowest fundraising costs—1%—in our field. To put your dollars to work conserving America's land and water resources, click here.