American Climate Partners is an entrepreneurial organization working since 2006 to restore the health of people, communities, and ecosystems. We design, create, and manage projects, programs, and businesses which help rural America become more resilient in the face of climate change, loss of biodiversity, pollution, and disease. American Climate Partners is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization headquartered in Rapidan, Virginia.
Michael Collins — a conservationist, entrepreneur, environmental and urban planner, and educator — founds the Association for Conservation Real Estate (Conserv), to recognize the value of ecological assets in real estate transactions.
Public Policy Virginia merges with Conserv to form the Center for Natural Capital (the Center) with a mission to restore the health of people, communities, and ecosystems by designing, creating, and managing projects, programs, and business to help rural American become more resilient. Michael Collins is named Executive Director by the new Board of Directors.
StreamSweepers program launches as a river clean-up, training and work experience program for college-aged young adults and veterans. The Rappahannock River Basin Comprehensive Clean-Up launches with a 17-mile clean-up of the Rapidan River in Orange County, from the Greene County line to Madison Mills.
StreamSweepers cleans the final 40 miles of the Rapidan River from its headwaters near Graves Mill to Somerset, and from Raccoon Ford to the confluence with the Rappahannock.
StreamSweepers cleans the Rappahannock from Waterloo to Remington and assists Hazel River and Middle River volunteers with comprehensive ecological assessments and light cleaning of those rivers, wrapping up the Rappahannock River Basin Comprehensive Clean-Up. The Clinch River Clean-Up continues its assessment of the river and plans for the launch of a five-year clean-up effort to remove up to 10,000 tires from the river.
Initial renovations of space in the old Rapidan Flour offices at Rapidan Mill are completed. The Center moves its headquarters to Rapidan.
The Center launches the Rapidan Institute to focus on comprehensive fisheries and floodplain habitat restoration in the Rapidan and Robinson River watersheds, and the Rapidan Fish Passage Project (RFPP) to restore free flow to the Rapidan River by modifying a dam at the village of Rapidan and reconnect the river’s headwaters with the Chesapeake Bay and Atlantic Ocean.
StreamSweepers cleans over 35 miles of the Clinch River, providing summer jobs to 15 young people, and removing over 1,600 tires and over 25 tons of other trash.
The Board of Directors unanimously decides to change our name to American Climate Partners.
Southeastern Climate Restoration Solutions program launches to implement our growing realization that modifications in landscape management could be a cost-effective natural solution for carbon dioxide removal from the atmosphere. USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Services selects us as a partner with a multi-million-dollar award to expand measurement and monitoring of carbon in soil on working agricultural lands and to assess how climate-smart practices are affecting carbon sequestration in 12 southeastern states.