That must have been especially meaningful for you as someone who grew up there. Alaska really shaped who I am and what matters to me. It was just an amazing place to grow up: so much opportu- nity, so much wilderness, and so much freedom. I was outdoors all the time—I suspect my Girl Scout days were quite a bit more rugged than they would have been anywhere else. We needed Army trucks just to get to our camp-outs! I will be forever grateful for my role in that scrappy Alaska lands coalition. It showed me what I really wanted to do. After the campaign, I stayed in the political arena as an advisor to candi- dates and ballot measure campaigns and nonprofits, which is how I came to join The Trust for Public Land.
What does a typical workday look like for you now?
Our team is quite lean—everybody does everything. So today I worked on an engagement strategy for an upcoming ballot measure in Los Angeles County. Then I turned around and edited a flyer for a different campaign. I make a lot of cold calls. I like mixing it up, engaging
with people and listening and under- standing what their needs are. You have to have the political experience to see the big picture, but the flexibility to zero in on the details.
How do you help make sure conservation measures succeed at the polls? We do our homework. First we research the available funding mechanisms and timelines. Then we contract with some of the nation’s top pollsters to find out what people want: is it a skate park, a natural area, water features, more trails? How much money is the commu- nity willing to spend? With poll results in hand, we make a recommendation to the elected officials and work with them to design a ballot measure. You can only move the needle of public opinion so far—especially since our campaigns are run on a shoestring. But if we have a strong coalition on the ground and the support of a passion- ate elected official, that’s when we can catch the wave and get a measure on the ballot. We can empower locals with the tools they need to win dedicated funding for conservation.
What victories stand out in your memory?
The era of 100-million-acre opportunities like we had in Alaska is over, but there are still really important wilderness areas that need to be purchased and protected. The wins that stand out are the tough fights—when we might not have had all the support or resources we hoped for and we were challenged to bring our full skillset to bear. Like in 2011, in Arapahoe County, Colorado: we were working to renew a sales tax to fund local conservation. We didn’t even expect to make it onto the ballot, since it was the middle of the recession. But it passed.
What motivates you? I want to help communities realize their own potential and fulfill their own ideals. That’s something that happens through voting on public financing for conservation that doesn’t happen any other way.
Time and again we’ve found that voters are willing to devote more fund- ing to conservation at the polls than officials can or do as part of an annual budget—and that that funding is more stable. It comes straight from the people and goes straight to the landscapes they love, which is an incredibly meaningful and powerful statement for a commu- nity to make. The least we can do is get that option onto the ballot so the voters can choose to pay for what matters for them, and for future generations. It’s incredibly gratifying work.
Lower Deschutes River Ranch, Oregon.
FIRST LOOK · 23
isaac lane koval
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