PUBLIC POLICY FOR CONSERVATION

The most biologically diverse and ecologically important lands in the west are largely in private hands. The public benefits of conscientious, well-informed management on private lands include clean water, food production, wildlife habitat, soil health and carbon sequestration, jobs and strong economies. Nevertheless, the voice of conservation-oriented private landowners is very often absent from many public policy forums at all levels of government. The Alliance works at the county, state, and local level to fill this void. Most often, this means working with public agencies to address barriers to private land management identified as we implement on-ground work across the region. We also participate with collaborative groups to pool resources and speak with a collective voice when our concerns and objectives align and we provide formal comments and feedback to our public agency partners on policies and guidelines whenever possible.

We also work closely with the Western Landowners Alliance, a west-wide land alliance that works primarily on policy issues that are very relevant to landowners in the Alliance region. Through the WLA our voice is amplified on state and national-level policies.