Conservation Fund names new Minnesota director

The Conservation Fund is an American environmental non-profit with a dual charter to pursue environmental preservation and economic development. Since its founding in 1985, the organization has protected more than 7 million acres of land and water in all 50 states, including parks, historic battlefields, and wild areas.

With a distinguished career in land conservation spanning over three decades, Kim Berns-Melhus has been named the Minnesota state director with The Conservation Fund.

A Minnesota native, Berns-Melhus has served in executive positions at the Department of the Interior for two agencies, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service, providing leadership in the development of agency policy, regulations, standards, and procedures for the lands under the agencies’ jurisdictions.  Most of her career was spent with the U.S. Forest Service, where she started as a forester out of college and worked on seven different national forests in four regions as well as in the national headquarters for the agency.

The Conservation Fund is currently working with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the Minnesota Office of School Trust Lands, and the U.S. Forest Service to facilitate the exchange of more than half of the 83,000 acres of School Trust Lands within the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness for productive working forestland. This a multi-year effort will provide long-term revenue for public schools and preserve Minnesota’s wood basket.

WTIP’s Joe Friedrichs spoke with Berns-Melhus about her new role with the Conservation Fund.