Safeguarding Habitat
Meet The Program Officer
Lisa Weinstein, Program Officer,
Safeguarding Habitat
Safeguarding Habitat Program
The goal of this program is to protect terrestrial and marine habitats and wildlife critical for the preservation of biodiversity. Focus is placed on protecting functioning ecosystems, including core, intact habitats, buffer zones, and wildlife corridors on both private and public lands. Wildlife communities of interest include far-ranging carnivores, fish, migratory birds, pollinators, and other keystone indicators of ecosystem health. Projects of interest include both ecosystem-based management solutions and local projects that serve as real-world case studies.
The Turner Foundation invests in select national and priority state level efforts to conserve wildlife and habitat. States with priority consideration include South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Montana, New Mexico, and Alaska. In addition, the foundation prioritizes the following regions for wildlife and habitat conservation grantmaking: the Southeastern Coastal Plain (specifically GA and SC); the Florida Panhandle and the Red Hills Region of north Florida and southwest Georgia; the Sky Islands region of southwestern NM, southeastern Arizona, and northern Mexico; the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem north to the transboundary Flathead; and south central/southeastern Alaska.
Internationally, the Turner Foundation supports salmon and marine conservation in the Russian Far East and along the central coast of British Columbia.
Program Initiatives
- Public & Private Land Conservation
- Wildlife & Fishery Conservation
- Marine Conservation
Featured Grantees
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Wild Salmon Center
Founded in 1992, the Wild Salmon Center (WSC) is a science-based, international conservation organization with the mission of identifying, understanding, and protecting the best wild salmon ecosystems of the North Pacific. WSC devises and implements practical strategies, based on the best science, to protect forever these extraordinary places and their biodiversity. The Turner Foundation supports WSC’s efforts to safeguard the Russian Far East’s most environmentally, economically, and culturally important watersheds to ensure their long-term protection in a rapidly changing region. No species is more important to the health of North Pacific rivers, and no other species has sustained human cultures and regional economies for generations like salmon.
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Sky Island Alliance
Sky Island Alliance is a grassroots non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and restoration of the rich natural heritage of native species and habitats in the Sky Island region of the southwestern United States and northwestern Mexico. For almost 20 years, Sky Island Alliance has been working with numerous partners to increase resilience in the landscape and ensure wildlife permeability in the region through protection and restoration of core areas and connecting corridors, and reduction of what are now termed “nonclimate stressors.” The Turner Foundation supports Sky Island Alliance’s work to connect, protect and restore the lands and wildlife of the Sky Island region through outreach, research, and conservation.
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Greater Yellowstone Coalition
The Greater Yellowstone Coalition (GYC) works to ensure that a thoughtful and holistic approach is taken to managing the national and wildlife resources in harmony with people and modern development. GYC works to maintain the full diversity and vitality of wildlife, to ensure ecological processes function on public lands with minimal intervention, to protect the exceptional recreational opportunities that exist for visitors and residents alike, and to champion healthy and diversified economies for local communities. The Turner Foundation has long been a supporter of GYC’s work to advocate for ecosystem-level sustainability and science-based management of the region’s public and private lands.