Earlier this year, Gabe Watson and EmmaLi Tsai participated in a workshop hosted by Defenders of Wildlife to help researchers create better maps at the intersection of environmental justice and conservation. Decisions from the workshop resulted in this user guide & website, which walks users through a more collaborate and inclusive approach to conservation that considers biodiversity, climate change, and environmental justice. To put the framework and shared principles into practice, the guide also features a case study using the National Wildlife Refuge System to show where future land acquisition should be prioritized.
At the Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC), our goal is to advance ecological restoration at scale, yet permitting costs consume up to ⅓ of project budgets. We need money to go to nature, not paperwork. Over the past two years, EPIC has quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed policies and processes related to restoration project permitting. Here we provide a case study of adoption of e-permitting technology that ameliorated many permitting bottlenecks.
Tim Male, Executive Director of EPIC, co-wrote an article in Ecosystem Marketplace with Mariana Sarmiento and Charles Bedford on how to close the biodiversity finance gap.
How could Maryland legislators build a sandbox for nature to accelerate restoration?
The US Department of Agriculture has contracted at least seven RCPP projects that used performance-based payments to buy environmental outcomes. This report profiles their challenges and successes.
Sand County Foundation and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center evaluate the successes, challenges, and immediate opportunities for watershed partnerships in the Midwest.
Pennsylvania’s Utilization of the Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) IIJA Funding
“A Good Program in Theory”: Opportunities for Administrative Improvements to USDA’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program
Clean Water and Drinking Water SRF Financial Terms, Conditions, Definitions, and Other Application Information
Stretching the Dollar to Get the Lead Out: Lead Service Line Contracting
A Technical Advisory Toolkit for Lead Service Lines
New $1 Million Great Lakes Water Infrastructure Loan Fund Supporting Improved Water Quality in the Great Lakes Region
Stretching the Dollar to Get the Lead Out: Good Decision-Making and Planning for Lead Service Line Cost Efficiencies
Stretching the Dollar to Get the Lead Out: Advancing Lead Service Line Programs with Low or No-Cost Policies and Practices
A Balancing Act: Optimizing Payment Schedules in Environmental Pay for Success Contracts
Joint Public Comment: Creation of the White House Environmental Justice Interagency Council
How Government Grants Can Use Innovative Contracting Methods to Open Rivers for Fish
Report: Adopting Innovation at the US Forest Service
Funding Nature Not Paperwork - Policy and Programmatic Pathways to Speed Restoration Permitting
Midwest Watershed Partnerships: Successes, Challenges, and Immediate Opportunities
Sand County Foundation and the Environmental Policy Innovation Center evaluate the successes, challenges, and immediate opportunities for watershed partnerships in the Midwest.
Progress of Iowa Watershed Partnerships
A report on the progress of nine Iowa cities that have signed memoranda of understanding with the state Department of Natural Resources to establish watershed partnerships.
Establishing a Watershed Partnership
This report describes how to proliferate connections between point and nonpoint sources of nutrients to meet permit requirements and improve water quality.
Challenges to Scaling RCPP: A review of the Regional Conservation Partnership Program's 2023 notice of funding opportunity
Case Study: Revamping Water Quality Exchange
Comment Letter on NOAA’s Equitable Climate Service Delivery RFI
