Paul W. Johnson Legacy Fund

Success Story

Programming goals of the PWJ Legacy Fund are under development. Initial priorities under consideration include: 1. A book, with elements potentially including a brief biography, a curated collection of his writings, and a discussion of Paul's ideas within the history and future of private lands conservation in America. 2. A small grants or fellowship program, open to some combination of graduate students, academics, journalists, conservation professionals, and farmers, to encourage writing and other forms of communication advancing a land ethic in public policy and across America's working landscapes. 3. An annual or biennial conference, workshop, lecture, or other gathering for sharing ideas, energy, inspiration, and fellowship.  4. Aspirational (longer term and funding-contingent) idea of creating a distributed policy think tank, dedicated to the proposition that private landowners hold responsibilities towards society, and society holds responsibilities towards landowners, and a Private Lands Conservation Act is needed to define those mutual responsibilities and to guide federal policy. The other programming activities would of course all be building blocks contributing to this effort.