Summer is here—and with it, the usual contradictions: smoke, floods and sunshine, funding wins and budget freezes, promise and precarity. In short, it’s a perfect season to be working in environmental finance.
These past few months have reminded us that progress rarely arrives all at once. But it does show up—sometimes as a check in the mail, sometimes as a seedling in the ground, sometimes as a fireline built by a youth crew with second chances in their back pockets. Across the country, we’re seeing new momentum for place-based work: more partners stepping up, more capital moving, and more clarity about what’s needed to scale land-based solutions that last.
That clarity is hard-won. In Missouri, it looks like financing landowners and small businesses to bring native grasses back to degraded rangelands. In California, it means piloting a new fuel treatment revenue model before the fire season—not after. And in Minnesota, it’s investing in local seed and supply chains to replant for the climate we’re entering, not the one we remember.
Read on for updates from the field, upcoming travel, and a few ways to connect. And wherever you are this summer, we hope you’re finding your own moments of shade and purpose.
Onward, Team New Leaf
Designing a Nature Bank in Missouri
We’re laying the groundwork for a CDFI model applied to nature in Missouri, aimed at restoring native grasses and forests while building wealth for rural landowners and small businesses.
With support from the Missouri Department of Conservation and local partners, we’ve begun stakeholder outreach and are starting to build a local team to guide this work.
As part of this build out, we are excited to be welcoming Megan Buchanan onto our team to lead this work. Megan was previously the Director of Resilient Lands at The Nature Conservancy in MO and has deep experience and ties to the state - welcome Megan!
Introducing a New Loan Program for Rural Resilience
Together with Edward Jones, we’re co-developing the Rural Resilience Loan Program to fund working landowners and rural small businesses.
This revolving fund will provide low-interest capital for land management, climate-smart infrastructure, and market access for new revenue streams.
Investor Meeting with the Arbor Day Foundation
With the Arbor Day Foundation, we co-hosted a gathering at the Doris Duke Foundation of impact investors and conservation finance experts in New York City to explore one of the most critical pieces of the restoration economy: native plant nurseries.
The conversation centered on how strategic investment in nursery infrastructure can unlock large-scale forestry and habitat restoration, create resilient supply chains, and generate lasting ecological and economic benefits.
New Research: Making the Business Case for the Voluntary Carbon Markets
Voluntary carbon markets offer real potential for companies seeking nature-aligned impact.
In partnership with the American Forest Foundation, we outlined how forests and water can anchor credible, cost-effective carbon strategies for corporations looking to reduce operational exposures to physical environmental risks.
Our time out on the road exploring new projects and engaging with our friends, peers, clients, and investors continues apace:
Agave Heritage Festival: Jake and Mike attended the Agave Heritage Festival in Arizona, deepening our work with Bat Conservation International and learning firsthand how desert plants, bats, and low-tech conservation strategies are intertwined
SF Climate Week presentation: Mike spoke on a panel at SF Climate Week focused on Carbon Finance for Wildfire Resilience and Forest Restoration, sharing New Leaf’s approach to designing financial tools for place-based fire mitigation.
Tennessee Nursery Research: Harry visited the East Tennessee State nursery as part of ongoing Forest Inputs Resilience (FIR) Fund research, exploring private landowner supply chains across a wider set of geographies.
Conservation Finance Network Bootcamp: Erica participated in CFN’s annual Bootcamp in New Haven, which this year included a panel presentation by Harry (a bootcamp alum himself), deepening knowledge and networks for catalytic capital for conservation.
Minnesota Seedling Network: Kunsang and Harry met with stakeholders across Minnesota with nurseries and cooperatives working to scale climate-smart seedling supply through a TNC-backed project.
The Quarter Ahead
Q3 – which is already in full swing – has been and will be a busy one. We’re heading to the Land Trust Alliance Rally, preparing for a Arbor Day Foundation convening at Salesforce offices in Chicago, and finalizing terms for our first loan deployment to a native seedling nursery. We’ll also continue refining tools with partners through the Conservation Finance Roundtable and other working groups.
Goodbye Interns
We're sending off our incredible Baucus Institute interns with gratitude.
Nari Lee led research on rural businesses and support programs available to them in Missouri.
Lian Thang completed a deep dive on seedling nurseries—work that will directly inform our next round of product design.
It was a pleasure to have them in the New York office and we are excited to see where their next steps take them!
That’s all from us —until next time, stay rooted and keep growing.
New Leaf Climate Partners, LLC, San Francisco, CA, New York, NY, United States
