Investment Firms Forge New Coalition for Public Lands Protection
Chris Thomas, News Director
Thursday, December 18, 2014
SEATTLE — There's a link between successful start-ups and the great outdoors - and members of a new national coalition say it's a profitable one that should be encouraged.
Leaders of a dozen investment and venture capital firms have formed the "Conservation for Economic Growth Coalition." At DBL Investors, managing partner Nancy Pfund says today's business owners know that to attract and keep workers, research has shown quality of life and access to public land are key components.
"People that work for these companies pay a lot of attention to the recreational availability around them," she says. "And so, it's not just a 'want to have' or a 'nice to have' - it's quite important to the ecosystem that is our entrepreneurial economy."
Particularly in the West, Pfund says many areas have found they can capitalize on their natural beauty or even their remoteness to attract entrepreneurs who could live and work anywhere.
She says the coalition isn't suggesting edging out the more traditional, extractive industries, but making room for other types of economic growth.
"The good news is that they can help build a community, but the bad news is that it's not an infinite resource. And we know that in energy," says Pfund. "So, we really do need to diversify, much the way that very oil-intensive nations are now diversifying away from that, seeing the handwriting on the wall."
The coalition members say they will work together to encourage Congress and the president to step up public land protection, through national park, national monument and wilderness designations - and to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which expires next year.
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