Protecting America's Water and Land: Conservation Alliance with Paul Hendricks

In this episode, Cory Connors talks with Paul Hendricks, Executive Director of The Conservation Alliance (TCA), which unites over 200 companies to protect vital U.S. lands and waters. Paul shares his journey from Michigan’s forests to leadership roles at Patagonia, Rivian, and now TCA. He explains how the Alliance funds grassroots conservation work, mobilizes business voices, and drives policy wins—including protecting 28 million acres of Alaska’s D1 lands and the removal of the Klamath River dams. Cory and Paul also discuss why access to nature matters, the economic value of public lands, and how people can get involved in advancing conservation efforts.

Key Topics Discussed:

• Paul’s background in environmental work and values formed during an outdoor-focused childhood
• Founding story and mission of The Conservation Alliance
• The organization’s role as the business voice for conservation
• Collaboration with more than 200 member companies
• How TCA funds and amplifies local grassroots conservation organizations
• Working with federal, state, and local governments on conservation policy

Resources Mentioned:

• The Conservation Alliance
• RecTech partners like AllTrails and OnX
• Conservation campaigns including the Boundary Waters and Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukevni-Ancestral National Monument

Contact:
Conservation Alliance:
Website: conservationalliance.com
Instagram
LinkedIn

Closing Thoughts:
Paul’s passion for protecting wild places is rooted in a lifelong love of nature—and a desire for future generations to experience the same. His work with The Conservation Alliance proves the power of collective action: businesses, communities, tribes, and individuals all have a role to play in safeguarding America’s natural heritage. Cory and Paul encourage listeners to get involved—whether by joining a local cause, taking small actions, donating, or simply spending more time outdoors to appreciate the beauty at stake.

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Transcript

0:06

Welcome to Sustainable Packaging with Cory Connors presented by Atlantic Packaging. I'm your host, Cory Connors. Today's episode, I connected with the executive director of the Conservation Alliance, Mr. Paul Hendricks. There are more than 200 businesses supporting their efforts and they protected over 23 million acres in 2024. I'd also like to thank our sponsors, 3M, Specright and Lorax EPI. We couldn't do this show without them. So excited to have Mr. Paul Hendricks, the executive director of the Conservation Alliance on today. It's a big deal what they do and I can't wait to tell you all about it. Paul, welcome sir. Thanks for having me, Cory. Great to see you again. Well, it's my honor and you've got an impressive background. We'll just jump right in here. Patagonia and the Green Grants Fund and with Rivian. These are all huge names and sustainability and eco conscious companies. How did you get in this focus of a career? Yeah. Good question. It's a, it's, it was a winding path to get to where I am now. I will say that. But I feel like, you know, if you look back, I feel like everything has a reason and everything kind of pulls it forward. So, you know, I think I explored a lot of different careers at some point in my life from working at a homeless shelter in LA to guiding youth on rock climbing trips. But the one thing That always pulled me through. And I think this goes back to so much of my upbringing and what my parents taught me about was a care for nature. I was very fortunate and grew up in the woods of Northern Michigan where we, my sister and I were just outside all the time, playing in the rivers, playing in the forests. And, um, you know, I've heard so many people always say like, Hey, you're not gonna, you're not gonna act or protect something unless you love it. Um, and that exposure and that love. of nature for so many different reasons, right? Recreation, sorry, like recreation, spirituality, whatever it is, just like have always lived so deeply inside of me. And so I think that's what kind of pushed me to where I am now. And through all those different organizations that you mentioned, whether it be Patagonia, Rivian, or now the Conservation Alliance, I also feel like, what brings you there is important and then what pulls you forward is also important. So I think looking both directions and making sure that you always know what you're working for. And for me, I've got two little kids at home and I want them to have the same experience that I had. want all their friends, I want all the kids in the community that we live in and everywhere to have that same experience that my sister and I had. And so work really hard to protect that and to make that happen. That's it. can I can feel the passion in your voice and I it just like I want to join you in this effort to conserve, you know, it's such an awesome feeling. It's so exciting to be a part of this. And I'm honored to get to have you on the show. Tell us about the Conservation Alliance for those of us who don't know about it and your work there as an executive director. Yeah. Yeah. So the Conservation Alliance is, we've been around for, think, 37 years now, we're marking. It was started by Patagonia, the North Face, Kelty and REI, who that long ago, the CEOs all got together. Rumor has it was in the San Francisco airport that might just be legend and folklore within the outdoor industry. But they essentially got together and said, hey, you know, we're all We're all doing individual things to protect our businesses. We're all doing things on our own, but the one common ground that the outdoor industry has in terms of protecting the future of our businesses, our employees, our customers is healthy lands and waters. We don't exist as an industry. We don't exist as a business if we don't have places to recreate and to go and to find spiritual value. you know, get out there and exercise, et cetera. And so they said, let's combine our forces, right? Every other industry combines their forces to protect their assets. This is our most important asset. Let's do it together. And so now, know, 20 or sorry, 37 years later, we're a alliance of our 200 businesses. Still a lot of our members, our core outdoor industry, they call it, members, but we've got amazing businesses who are kind of tangential and even outside that. Atlanta packaging, we've got New Belgium brewing, we've Rivian, a lot of businesses. So what we have, we frame where we sit within the environmental and conservation movement right now is that we are the business voice for conservation. And so, you know, right now economics have an outsized influence when we're talking about our nation's politics. And so there's a huge responsibility for what we're doing right now, because we really try to bring the business voice uh to protect millions of waters in North America in doing what we can to do that. um And so our model, I won't get too much into the weeds, but I always kind of talk about our model being like kind of a force multiplying model where we have a huge network of grantee organizations. So we fund a lot of small grassroots organizations working on the ground across the nation on the most important conservation issues. And then we've got this amazing network of 200 plus businesses. who can amplify their causes to customers who have the ability to get in offices in DC. And where that comes together is really kind of our force multiplying and it's our superpower. And so that's where we're really driving forward our work right now. It's incredible what you're doing and how you're accomplishing it. You have a very impressive board of directors, including our president at Atlantic Packaging, Wes Carter. Can you tell us about some of the projects that you're working on or maybe something recently that you've completed that you're really excited about? Yeah, yeah. So our work, it spans all different types of landscapes. And I think that's kind of cool because it's almost like a mutual front approach towards conservation. We work a ton on public lands and waters. We work a lot on private lands and waters, and then we work on tribal lands and waters and make sure that we're doing work across all those ecosystems to make sure that we're doing the most we can to make impact on the most important issues. um And so I guess a couple examples of things that we've accomplished or we've done at the end of 2024 for a long time, we've been working with groups up in Alaska to protect what we call the D1 landscapes. So that's a series of lands across Alaska that are really very important to tribal communities, to subsistence living. protect amazing migration corridors, mid-June rivers, 28 million acres. And we were able to work over with so many partners to really get that place of protection where it's protected. Where we are right now, we're now having to make sure that those protections are durable and they're going to stand up against current threats to them. But the really cool project that we did, kind of a different type of project that I'm probably gives me one of the most like inspiration right now, but this was uh the work that our friends out, the Yurok tribe out in California had done on the Klamath River. So the Klamath River, which is in Northern California up into Southern Oregon, had a series of dams in there that were protecting your site, free flowing river going up the whole river corridor and you know. salmon and everything couldn't migrate up there. Over a long period of time, they were working and they finally removed all the dams from that river. And just like within a short amount of time, they found species that they'd never seen up in the upper reaches of that river basin, returning back together. And then what is the coolest thing, and I always get shivers in my bones when I talk about this, is that for the first time in like over a hundred years, the first group of people to fully descend that river was this group of Indigenous youth who got in kayaks and were able to kayak the whole thing down. And we talk about like restoration of a whole ecosystem, like how cool is that? Like it's just so, so inspiring. It's like it was meant to be, right? This is how it should be. This is, uh you know, I'm sure the dams had a uh purpose for a short time, but we've realized that a lot of those were unnecessary and not as helpful as we thought back then. And it's so wonderful to see these indigenous communities getting to benefit and all of us getting to benefit from these programs that you're spearheading. Congratulations to you and your team. It's amazing to see. Yeah, yeah, it's really cool. um And it's cool to see like what I always say, you know, we, take like a balanced approach towards work, which I think we're meeting in the middle is where anything needs to happen right now. And so it's cool to see like what you said of like, Hey, you know, at one point there was reasons for, you know, X, Y, Z issue on an area, but how do we think about holistically about the future of these landscapes to make sure we're meeting everyone's needs and where you can find those wins? Like that's where. That's where durability is going to find itself in the conservation movement right now. Klamath Falls is just a beautiful place. I've been there and it's, I'm excited to go again and see you without all the interruptions to the river. You mentioned some resistance to certain programs and things like that with, I'm assuming those are business or government related. Can you tell us how you work with the local state and federal governments to make these programs happen? Yeah, yeah, totally. You know, a lot of our work is on federal land and water. When we're talking about the public land aspect of our work, it's primarily on the federal side of things. And so, you know, we're depending on kind of the environment in DC and kind of who's in Congress and who's in the administration, our approach differs. I mean, we're still laser focused on really pushing forward conservation wins where where the intersection of conservation, community and economy meet. So we're not working on every piece of land across the US, but we're saying, hey, there's a lot of amazing landscapes that are good for biodiversity, they're good for climate, they're good for community development, they're good for recreation, and they're good for the economy. And so those are the landscapes that we're really focusing in on. A report from a partner organization came out recently that said every day public lands generate 350 million dollars of economic you know activity on public lands. So it's amazing yeah and so you you unfortunately you know we're hearing you know this this kind of narrative that said hey our public lands if they're not drilled for oil or if they're not mined or if they're not logged they're not generating any economic value. And we can be further from the truth because the reality is that those dollars are huge. And those dollars from recreation, from tourism, from whatever non-extractive resources are derived from them, those last in perpetuity, right? That's not a boom and bust cycle. And so we're really trying to protect those landscapes. And so we work with the federal government a lot. You right now we're trying to defend some key landscapes that are coming under threat, under kind of the auspice that, we need to open them up to mining. And so, we work directly with members of Congress. We are talking to them about priority issues. We raise these issues to our business partners who then amplify it to their customers to really kind of create I would say like a big tent approach towards conservation. And I think, you know, last summer there was a lot of work that happened or a lot of issues that kind of happened about selling off our public lands. And I think in that we really started to see the fact that, hey, know, like nature is a, it's not a partisan issue anymore. It's nonpartisan, it's bipartisan, it's unpartisan. Whatever you want to, whatever vernacular you want to all those things. And so how do we get that message in front of decision makers? And so that's a lot of what we're doing is going to offices, going to the administration and saying, this isn't about left, right. This isn't about liberal or conservative. This is about American heritage. And this is our future in these protected states. So that's philosophically how we work with them. I love that. Yes, sir. Well said. That's exactly right. I agree with you 100%. We need to all work together to make this in perpetually beautiful place that we live in be there forever. I'm in awe of our community where we live. I live in the Northwest, like I've mentioned before, and we would just go up, drive up to Mount Hood and just spend the day and walk around the woods and throw snowballs at each other, whatever the case would be, whatever time of year it was. just, we just love it here. And it makes me uh so happy to be out in the wilderness and in that, you know, try, you know, sit next to a river or at the ocean, at the coast or whatever it is. I think as people experience those things, they appreciate what you do more as that, as that kind of the feeling that you're getting. Yeah. Yeah, totally. Yeah. And I don't know if we in America really realize what, how lucky and fortunate we are, right? Like our public land system for decades, people have called it our best idea. It's because you don't see it in other places, right? You go to other countries and no one has this amazing. infrastructure of public access to get out there to experience nature. And I, you I always think it's like, it's one of the great equalizers in the world, right? You can, you can be a billionaire, and you can be a college student who's even debt in your, you can experience public lands in the same exact way. And how cool is that? Like, talk about an avenue towards equity, like that's what we need to be. talking about more. And once it's gone, it's gone. And so that's why I really, really like working, working really hard right now to protect these places. Excellent. Well, and speaking of college students and younger people, how can the public help you with your efforts? How could somebody like me join a cleanup group or do donate to a fund? What's the secret there? Yeah. Yeah. Um, you know, think if you're, if you're engaged, you work for a business, um, we'd love to bring you into the TCA fold. Um, we go a big tent approach towards this, the more the merrier. Um, if you're an individual, you know, my first, my first kind of philosophical approach is like, just do something. Like, I feel like we're in a world where sometimes there's so much coming at us and we, kind of like, like, I don't know what to do. Deer in a headlight type of thing. Like, I don't know if you're Even the smallest thing matters right now. so, yeah, you could, you can sign up to TCA, to our newsletter, get, get plugged into taking action. do with ourselves or through our partners, we do grassroots kind of individual calls to action. Right now we're really focused on the boundary waters right now. You can join us, you can certainly donate, but also like if there's a local cause that you care about, whether it's in the Northwest or. In the Southeast, where West and crew is, if there's something locally, just plug in, donate, volunteer, find your cause, find what's gonna pull you forward and do something. I'm not gonna sit here say everyone needs to get involved in the Conservation Alliance, get involved in this movement and you're gonna make an impact. Yeah, that's it. Try make an effort. Tell your friends about it and and go for a hike and see and take pictures and show people how beautiful it is. Yeah, well said. So I know this is kind of a big question, but what does success look like for the Conservation Alliance? Or are you never done? Are you always going to be working? Is this a perpetual job that you have? Well, unfortunately, I think it is a perpetual job that we have. But it's also, you know, it's a great job. It's a great work. You know, unfortunately, people always say like, you have a landscape and you get it, you drill it once and your job's done, but you protect it once and your job's never done because there's always threats that come to our lands and waters. So the job's never done. But what I success looks like, think we've got short term and long term type of thing. One is, are we doing our best to advance or defend our key landscapes? I think that's quantitative kind of approach towards things. We have things like the boundary waters or. the Bajnoabjaoita Kukwene National Monument that we're really working to protect, right? So measure of success is, we able to defend these? But I think there's a long-term, which may be just as important. And that's kind of what we talked about earlier, which is, are we developing a comprehensive movement, a comprehensive narrative around nature that in, you know, in this year, in two years, in four years, in six years, that protecting nature is not an issue that ever comes on the mind of uh elected officials in terms of it's not a priority for them and their constituents, right? So long-term success is that this becomes an issue that it's a don't touch our land and water because it's... good for every single thing and good for every single American. So that's more of like a qualitative, like philosophical thing, but it's so important because we have to reframe the narrative about what we're more working for here. Otherwise we're going to always be in a defensive posture. And then that's just gonna, that's going to be exhausting. Yeah, that's exactly right. What are some of the new kind of high tech tools that you're using? Are using like digital scans of the environment or using drones or anything like that? Has somebody from Intel come to you and said, Hey, we have this new computer chip that you can use and it will, you know, tell you what's what needs to be conserved or have you been reached out by anybody with high tech equipment? That's a good, that's a really good question. And you're talking to admittedly, like a technology, technology, carmogen. I'm not great at it. Um, I would say there's what, what's where we've been working on as I think is a couple different areas of us or our partners. One is just the GIS mapping tools becoming more and more robust in terms of not just analyzing what, you know, the characteristics of certain landscapes, but also. visualizing them, right? I think like last summer when there was a threat of selling off a couple million acres of public lands, that sits in your mind and you can't really picture it, but all of a sudden you bring that into a map form and you're like, wow, that's my backyard. Like that's the place I've gone to recreate. So GIS tools for sure. And then we've been able to work with some great partners who are more on what I think like the rec tech. So whether it be like an all trails or an onyx who tracks usage on public lands. And then also we've got data in terms of, know, hey, this isn't just this landscape where there's a bunch of trees and bears, right? It's like, actually, this amount of hunters went there, this many hikers went there, this many fly fishers or anglers went. And also then that data we can go. to the public when you go to decision makers and say, look at the numbers, it's increasing. And that's powerful. Oh, that's exactly right. And you put it into a connotation that makes sense to people like a Senator or something say, Hey, the people that vote for you, this is how many millions of them visited the, area that we've protected. And we need to continue to protect it. All of a sudden it's, wait, I'm going to get ousted here if I don't go along with this, because it's, it's the right thing to do, you know? So. Yep. Well, I commend you and your team keep up the great work. I'm sure Wes Carter and the team at Atlantic Packaging will continue to support you any way we can. And I did want to ask, how do we get in touch with you? What's the best website or method? Yeah. Yeah. We've got, conservationalliance.org. We've we're on all the social channels. and we can drop them in the, in the, show notes. Um, but definitely follow us. mean, if you just want to get updates, we try not to do inundate people, but like really bring the most important issues, follow us on social media and you'll get that and you can plug in as well. So. Great. Well, thank you, sir. Really appreciate your wisdom and all the work you're doing. Thanks. thank you for having us and thanks for amplifying this and everything you're doing over at Atlantic.