Katie Michels

Katie Michels, MBA-MEM '23

Katie Michels is a joint degree student at the Yale School of the Environment and the Yale School of Management.

Authored Articles
A photo of the Lower Brule reservation, courtesy Jerry Huddleston via Flickr Creative Commons.

Take in the view of the Lower Brule reservation, courtesy Jerry Huddleston via Flickr Creative Commons. 

Yale Forest Forum Highlights: Carbon Projects for Indigenous Forest Owners

Katie Michels
Bryan Van Stippen’s talk started with an assertion: Tribal nations must “not let their natural resource assets benefit others before they benefit their own communities.” The National Indian Carbon Coalition (NICC) views carbon projects as both economic development and natural resource stewardship opportunities in response to historic extraction and theft.
(Photo by Mark Pouley via Creative Commons) The Skagit Valley in a reconsidered light.

Making conservation relevant for a broader community, considering new sources of funding, and protecting landscape: practice can incorporate all of these in a cycle. 

Placing Fairness at the Root: Three Case Studies in Conservation Finance Justice

Katie Michels
Environmental justice in land conservation requires practitioners to slow down and consider the foundations that exclude or enable relationships with and control over land. The following stories highlight three organizations using conservation finance strategies to advance environmental justice outcomes. In each story, participants have asked: why is this so?
Cash flows and rivers flow

The Washington Farmland Trust, which crafted the Conservation Note, provided this image. 

Good Crops, Good Credit: How a Northwest Land Trust Sustains Farmland With Capital

Katie Michels
How does a farmer with no desire to keep growing crops become a catalyst for financial value and land preservation? The Washington Farmland Trust worked with a farmer at the end of his career to craft a financial package that would keep his land from developers, sustain ecosystem services, and...