The Public Lands and Waters Conservation Fund Project
The Public Lands and Waters Conservation Fund Project is my ongoing effort to answer a hard but necessary question:
How do we fund conservation on America’s public lands and waters at the scale the work actually requires, instead of relying on a patchwork of programs, unstable appropriations, and short-term political fixes?
Over time, this project has grown into more than a single paper or article series. It is now a broader body of work about conservation finance, public process, institutional capacity, accountability, restoration, and the public responsibilities that come with owning public lands and waters in common.
This page is the home base for that work. It brings together the working paper, the core article series, bonus explainers, and newer essays that extend the project into restoration and governance questions.
If you are new to the project, start with the guide below. If you have been following along for a while, use this page as a running archive of the ideas, tools, and updates that continue to grow out of the original framework.
Durable conservation outcomes require more than affection for wild places. They require durable funding, capable institutions, clear priorities, public accountability, and a citizenry that knows how to defend all four.
Last updated: April 20, 2026
Start here
Launch article: A New Conservation Funding Model for the United States The project introduction and the best place to start if you want the big picture first.
Series Article 1: A New Conservation Funding Model in Plain English - Ten Things to Know The fastest plain-language overview of the problem, the proposal, and why it matters.
Series Article 5: The Public Lands and Waters Conservation Fund: A Blueprint, Not a Slogan The clearest statement of what the proposed model is actually meant to do.
Series Article 9: How To Use This Funding Model: A Field Guide for Advocates and Practitioners The practical guide for readers who want to think about implementation, advocacy, or real-world use.
The Anti-Raid Test A short companion piece on one of the central credibility questions any new conservation fund must answer.
If you want the full story, start with the launch article or Series Article 1 and then read the series in order.
Full report
You can download the full working paper here: A New Conservation Funding Model for the United States.
Current working paper: Version 1.0, November 2025.
This paper examines extraction royalties, excise taxes, user fees, the outdoor recreation economy, and the structural weaknesses in the way the United States currently funds conservation. It also lays out the case for a more durable funding architecture that can serve federal, state, Tribal, and local conservation work over the long term.
Core series
These articles walk through the project step by step.
Foundations
Launch article: A New Conservation Funding Model for the United States The opening case for why a new conservation funding model is needed.
Series Article 1: A New Conservation Funding Model in Plain English - Ten Things to Know A concise guide for readers who want the argument in practical terms.
Series Article 2: The Conservation Funding Gap: Why Our Current System Cannot Keep Up Why the present approach remains too fragmented and too small for the work in front of us.
The economic case
Series Article 3: A Trillion Dollar Outdoor Economy on a Shoestring Conservation Budget The mismatch between the scale of the outdoor economy and the scale of conservation investment.
Series Article 4: Who Really Pays for Wildlife? Rethinking the “Hunters Pay for Everything” Story A close look at who currently carries the conservation funding burden, and why that is not enough.
The model itself
Series Article 5: The Public Lands and Waters Conservation Fund: A Blueprint, Not a Slogan The core proposal.
Series Article 6: What It Would Look Like On The Ground If We Fixed Wildlife Funding What better funding could mean in practice.
Series Article 7: Keeping a New Conservation Fund Honest Through Governance, Guardrails, and Trust How any new funding structure must protect against misuse, drift, or capture.
Series Article 8: Hard Questions and Honest Answers about a New Conservation Funding Model Responses to the most important objections and concerns.
Application and purpose
Series Article 9: How To Use This Funding Model: A Field Guide for Advocates and Practitioners A practical guide for people trying to translate the framework into action.
Series Article 10: Why This Work Matters to Me: A Personal Case for a New Conservation Funding Model The personal and civic reasons I believe this work matters.
Bonus explainers and companion pieces
These shorter pieces help clarify or extend parts of the main series.
What You Might Have Missed in the Public Lands and Waters Conservation Fund Series (So Far) A recap for readers joining midstream.
The Money Map: Follow the Dollar Through the PLWCF A simpler way to visualize how the funding model is meant to work.
The Anti-Raid Test A focused test of whether any proposed fund is actually durable and trustworthy.
Project extensions
The PLWCF framework started as a funding argument, but it naturally leads to larger questions about restoration, governance, and national conservation priorities. These essays continue that next stage of the work.
A Public Land and Water Conservation Fund Can Fund Restoration But America Still Needs a Restoration Mission A durable conservation fund can help pay for restoration, but money alone does not create a restoration-first governing system.
America Needs a National Conservation and Restoration Mission An extension of the restoration argument, focused on the need for a clearer national mission that aligns public lands, private lands, waters, wildlife, and accountability.
These pieces matter because funding is necessary, but funding alone is not enough. Conservation also depends on institutional capacity, strategic coherence, public legitimacy, and a governing framework capable of turning dollars into measurable ecological outcomes.
Related case studies and adjacent work
Some later essays on this Substack are not part of the original numbered series, but they test or extend the same underlying questions in real-world contexts.
If We Are Serious About Restoring the Prairie, Bison Have to be Part of the Plan A case study in restoration, governance, and the mismatch between ecological need and existing systems.
Other current and future essays on public process, agency capacity, extraction policy, and conservation reform will continue to connect back to this project as the work develops.
Companion framework
If this page is about the funding architecture conservation needs, the companion page on A 21st Century Framework for Conservation Advocacy is about the civic architecture that must exist alongside it.
In practice, the two belong together.
A durable conservation future requires funding, capacity, accountability, and a public that knows how to defend all three. The PLWCF project focuses on the funding side of that equation. The 21st Century conservation page focuses on the advocacy and public-process side.
Why this page exists
Too much conservation writing stops at diagnosis. It explains what is wrong, but not how institutions work, how durable reform might be built, or how ordinary people can act in ways that are informed, practical, and repeatable.
I want this page to help close that gap.
Public lands and waters are held in trust for the American people. If we are serious about protecting them, restoring them, and sustaining the wildlife and access opportunities they support, then conservation cannot remain dependent on fragmented funding, thin institutional capacity, and episodic public attention.
This page exists to organize a different argument, one grounded in permanence, public responsibility, and practical reform.
I will continue updating it as new pieces go live.
