Our History

1985

The Conservation Fund is founded by Pat Noonan, former CEO of The Nature Conservancy and recipient of the MacArthur “Genius” award for being the first person to bring the environmental movement and business together.

1987

TCF creates its Revolving Fund to buy land, where every dollar is used only to buy land and every dollar is used in perpetuity.

1988

TCF conducts analysis of the Civil War battlefields most at risk for development and needing to be protected. Over the years, our Civil War Battlefield Program has protected critical sites on over 80 battlefields, including Antietam and Gettysburg.

1990

TCF launches the Freshwater Institute to develop world-leading technology that allows fish to be raised in sustainable ways.

1992

TCF partners with the Richard King Mellon Foundation to launch the American Land Conservation Program aimed at buying land in all 50 states.

1995

TCF launches the Natural Capital Investment Fund to attract private growth capital to small, natural-resource-based businesses across the 13-state Appalachian region.

TCF marks first 1 million acres protected.

1997

TCF helps create the National Conservation Training Center, the conservation movement’s “watering hole” where government, nonprofit and corporate leaders can learn and work together.

2001

Larry Selzer becomes President and CEO of The Conservation Fund.

2003

TCF begins its California North Coast Forest Conservation Initiative, working with partners to sustainably manage 74,000 acres of working forests to support economic and environmental health.

TCF launches the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail Initiative, eventually helping conserve more than 20,000 acres along the explorers’ route, including land critical to the Fort to Sea Trail and Clark’s Dismal Nitch.

2007

TCF launches the National Forum on Children and Nature to reconnect young people with the outdoors.

2010

TCF launches the Working Forest Fund, the most effective and efficient forest conservation platform ever created.

2016

TCF acquires Sabine Ranch on the upper Texas Gulf Coast, expanding wildlife protection in the region and protecting critical wetlands and watersheds.

2018

The State of Maryland asks TCF to establish and sponsor the Harriet Tubman Rural Legacy Area, building on our role in the foundation of Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park and Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument.

TCF joins with the state of Montana and other partners in an initiative to protect 250,000 acres of wildlife habitat along the Rocky Mountain Front while maintaining the region’s traditional ranching heritage.

2019

TCF issues first-of-their-kind Green Bonds for conservation.

2021

TCF launches the Farms Fund to conserve family farms around fast-growing major metropolitan areas.

TCF purchases Pelican River Forest, the largest privately-owned, unprotected block of forest remaining in Wisconsin.

2022

TCF completes work with Indigenous and local communities to protect thousands of acres of land and waters vital to Bristol Bay, Alaska’s rich salmon runs put at risk by the proposed Pebble Mine project.

TCF transfers over 28,000 acres to the Bois Forte Band of Chippewa, completing historic land restoration within the Bois Forte Reservation in Minnesota.

2023

TCF steps in to protect Colorado’s Mount Democrat and reopens the “fourteener” peak to hiking and recreation.

2024

The Working Forest Fund reaches the milestone of 1 million acres of forestland secured.

The Conservation Fund launches its new logo and tagline, Land Sustains Us.