Conservation Budgets Explained

In the conservation world, we keep an eye on funding related to protecting land and water resources — requests mainly from the Conservation Bank, Department of Natural Resources (DNR), the Department of Environmental Services (DES), the Department of Parks, Recreation and Tourism (PRT), and the Office of Resilience. The interplay between these agency budgets results in conservation funding that can be leveraged and allocated for specific purposes like habitat protection or flood mitigation.

Click here for last year’s deep dive on how each of these agencies’ budgets affect conservation priorities.

So, what’s in this year’s budget so far? The Fiscal Year 2025 - 2026 State Budget drafted by the House Ways and Means Committee can be found here. Keep in mind, this is just the starting point — the budget will likely see changes as it moves through the Senate and back to the House for further amendments. Given House leadership's focus on tax reform and other priorities, we weren’t anticipating the same level of conservation funding as in previous years.

Conservation Bank: $3.9 million in recurring dollars and $9 million in one-time dollars, with nothing allocated yet for the new Working Agricultural Lands Preservation Fund. View the Bank's full request here.

Office of Resilience: $38 million in one-time dollars to replenish the Disaster Relief and Resilience Reserve Fund, which was depleted after Hurricane Helene. This fund is used primarily for disaster assistance, home and infrastructure repairs, and agricultural losses. View their full request here.

PRT: $15 million in one-time dollars for state park development of newly acquired properties. View the full request here.

DES: $6.7 million in new recurring dollars for environmental permitting and drinking water programs, and $800,000 in recurring dollars to expedite electric utility permit applications.

DNR: $0 was granted for land acquisition. Last year’s $10 million allocated to the Department went into expanding DNR’s managed lands critical for hunting, fishing, and habitat protection. View their full request here.

The Week Ahead

Tuesday, 2/25 at 9:00 AM – Senate Finance Health Human Services Subcommittee will review the budget request from the Department of Environmental Services, likely focusing on the speed of permitting for energy projects and other development.

Tuesday, 2/25, 1.5 hours after the House adjourns – the House LCI Committee will take up the Small Business Regulatory Freedom Act (H.3021).

Wednesday, 2/26 at 9:00 am – a House 3M Subcommittee will consider a bill we discussed last week (H.3165) regarding development impact fees and increased communication among cities and counties regarding growth. The subcommittee will also consider a bill (H.3215) that would give local planning entities a 45-day timeline to review and issue decisions on building permits, zoning changes and appeals, and other building related authorizations.

Wednesday, 2/26 at 10:00 am – a Senate Judiciary Subcommittee will continue to consider the House Energy Security Act (H.3309).

Remember, you can stream all of these hearings by visiting the Statehouse website, or the video archives page to watch later.