Ryan Richards is a senior policy analyst for Public Lands at American Progress, focusing on natural resource economics and markets. His work covers a variety of environmental policy topics, including water policy, ecosystem restoration, and private lands conservation.
Prior to joining American Progress, Richards worked on wildlife conservation projects domestically and internationally. Most recently, he conducted his doctoral research on incentive programs to encourage reforestation on farms in the watershed supplying drinking water for the city of São Paulo. He was a Fulbright visiting researcher at the University of São Paulo’s Luiz de Queiroz College of Agriculture and the Instituto de Pesquisas Ecológicas in Brazil.
He spent six years with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute as a graduate research fellow and a program associate for the Global Tiger Initiative. He has also worked on habitat restoration projects with farmers in Namibia and California’s Central Valley.
He holds a Ph.D. from George Mason University, where he focused on environmental economics and policy. He also received an M.S. in conservation biology and an M.P.P. in environmental policy from the University of Maryland and a B.S. in wildlife biology from the University of California, Davis.
The announced move of two agencies out of Washington and under new USDA management places research integrity and public data at risk.
Congress has passed a solution to keep wildfires from dominating U.S. Forest Service and Interior Department budgets. Now it should give these agencies the tools to deliver the greatest benefits to public safety and forest health.
Congress’ first attempt at the next Farm Bill guts support on which farmers and land managers rely to be good stewards of the nation's natural resources, while cutting important conservation programs and weakening environmental laws.
This report provides a path forward for federal, state, and city governments to safeguard the ecological and economic health of the American West by protecting and restoring its waterways.
The farm bill is America's largest funding source for private lands conservation; its programs can be better leveraged to attract billions of dollars in private investment, increasing the economic and environmental benefits of conservation on working lands.
The Endangered Species Act has effectively reduced the threats of America’s declining wildlife and prevented the extinction of 99 percent of species under its protection.
Congress can use the farm bill to sustain the nation’s forests and create thousands of jobs by encouraging smart investments in the full range of natural resources and services that forests provide.
Ryan Richards writes about the contradictory nature of Interior Secretary Zinke's statements at the Western Governors Association.
Recent policy developments have spurred investment in conservation, but an executive order signed by President Trump now undermines efforts to unlock economic growth and a better future for America’s land, water, and wildlife.
Uncertainty surrounding the Trump administration’s approach to the U.S.-Mexico relationship has left water allocations in limbo for 35 million Americans living in the West.