Donor Profile

Erik Meyers from Virginia

Erik Meyers, vice president at The Conservation Fund, is a member of our Cornerstone Society, a special group of individuals who have invested long term in our conservation efforts by making gifts of $500 or more for five years or longer.

I have such vivid memories of many great outdoor places. While school and home meant being indoors, the outdoors meant excitement and freedom. And every family vacation had a national park or two as the destination. 

While I was growing up, my family relocated several times.  In San Diego, we lived on Point Loma where I spent many happy days on my own exploring Pacific tide pools, catching crabs and lizards and climbing the winding stairs of the lighthouse at Cabrillo National Monument to look out over San Diego Bay. I can also recall running full-tilt down the great sand dunes of Indiana Dunes State Park on Lake Michigan’s shoreline, tramping through the woods in western Pennsylvania with my dog and catching dozens of perch fishing with my grandfather on a small Wisconsin lake.  

During my college years in Washington, DC, I took up rowing. In those days, the Potomac River suffered from uncontrolled pollution, the result of broken infrastructure and industrial facilities on the Georgetown shoreline.  At one point, a fat rendering plant discharged waste directly into the river causing florescent green and red algae to bloom.  We rowers would try to avoid breathing the foul air until we were well upstream. These strong memories accompanied me to law school where I studied environmental law and resolved to pursue a career to help restore the environment and conserve the magnificent natural resources I enjoyed growing up outdoors. Today, along that same shoreline, there’s a wonderful new urban park and shoreline cafes.

 

Why I Choose To Support The Fund

The Fund is one of only a handful of organizations that truly aligns environmental, economic and social objectives. It doesn’t just paint a vision in its mission statement; it walks the talk time and again through its projects. It’s a privilege to be associated with the great work that the Fund carries out across the country.

While many see the work we do in conserving land and water, they often don’t realize the extent to which we’re helping to generate jobs and build more sustainable communities. We work as hard connecting people to the land to enable them to build a better life for themselves and their families as we do providing habitat for wildlife or conserving unique ecosystems. I enjoy rolling up my sleeves and working directly on Fund projects, but I also want to contribute financially to keep the great work of the Fund going.