How We Do It

Public Policy & Advocacy

Working with grassroots advocates, agency leaders, and elected officials, OSI time and again has deftly built support for smart and meaningful land conservation victories.

Today, we continue to inform and educate the public, policymakers, foundations, and nonprofit partners, to achieve real and lasting success for fresh air, clean water, and scenic landscapes.

Effective advocacy to build support within state and local governments

From the halls of state government to county meeting rooms, OSI meets with leaders and builds coalitions to advocate for improving access to nature and the outdoors, strengthening communities, protecting water resources, and preparing for a changing climate.

OSI also mobilizes on-the-ground support for critical funding, such as New York State’s Environmental Protection Fund — a resource for open space protection, municipal parks, environmental justice, and the care and stewardship of public lands.

In New Jersey, OSI worked closely with state officials to identify $65 million in state funding for the purchase of the Essex Hudson Greenway; and in South Carolina, OSI is leading efforts to convert mitigation dollars into conservation successes.

  • The Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is America's most important program to conserve irreplaceable lands and improve outdoor recreation opportunities throughout the nation. The LWCF has provided support for OSI projects in New York, South Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, Florida, and beyond. This photo captures an aerial view of Grace Furnace, Virginia, a place protected by OSI and the LWCF.
  • In the heart of the Everglades Headwaters National Wildlife Refuge, protection of the 1,992-acre Triple Diamond Ranch contributes to water quality, wildlife habitat, and recreation. OSI and LWCF helped the State of Florida protect the land in 2017.
  • Once highly threatened by resort, residential, and commercial development, these 16,000 acres were, until 2019, the state’s largest undeveloped, unprotected Atlantic coastline property. The Ceylon property in Georgia was protected by OSI and the LWCF.
  • In the 1990s, an unbroken ecosystem of forests, streams, and farmlands nearly became part of the largest planned development on the East Coast. The land, now part of Sterling Forest State Park in New York, was protected by OSI and the LWCF.
  • Cabin Bluff contains carbon-sequestering marshland and pines that buffer coastal Georgia communities from storm surge and flooding. The land was protected in 2021 by OSI and the LWCF.


Securing the greatest environmental victory in a generation

In Washington, D.C., OSI was a leader securing full and permanent funding for America’s Land and Water Conservation Fund, the nation’s only dedicated funding source for conservation, protects natural resources where Americans live, work, and play.

Through its Outdoors America Campaign, OSI in 2020 successfully spearheaded the effort to achieve this full and permanent funding for LWCF, and secure benefits for national parks, national wildlife refuges, historic battlefields, working ranchlands, community playgrounds, and many more places.

Through years of outreach and education, and with a coalition of some 2,000 partners — including conservation nonprofits, outdoor industry representatives, Indigenous tribes, wildlife watchers, and religious organizations, among others — OSI achieved a victory that had been sought for over a half-century.

What You Can Do

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