Will McDow

Director, Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds

Work

Areas of expertise:
environmental markets, mitigation policy, working lands conservation

Will McDow is a director for EDF’s Climate Resilient Coasts and Watersheds strategic initiative. In this work, Will engages communities, farmers, businesses, academics and public agencies to develop shared and equitable solutions to increase climate resilience.

Will has broad expertise on environmental market design, mitigation policy and working lands conservation. He serves on the board of the Ecological Restoration Business Association.

Since joining EDF in 2003, he has focused on market-based incentives to expand environmental benefits on America’s working lands, including prior work on state tax policy, farm bill program design, bioenergy markets and habitat exchanges.

Background

Will has spent 10 years specializing in economic incentives and rural land management, with an emphasis on energy markets, farm bill programs and tax policy. He led EDF’s multi-year effort to pass legislation in North Carolina that gives property tax relief to landowners who undertake conservation activities on their property. Will has coauthored Standing Tall: A New Path for North Carolina’s Private Forests [EDF, 2006] and Shades of Green: Measuring the Value of Urban Forests in the Housing Market [J. Forest Econ 11(3):177-199, 2005].

Education

  • Master of Forestry, Duke University
  • Master of Environmental Management (Resource Economics and Policy), Duke University
  • Bachelor of Arts (Biology), Lawrence University

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