This week, we spoke with Amelia Joy and Maya Cohn from Nature is Nonpartisan, a bipartisan coalition working to unite Americans around conservation and land stewardship as a gateway to climate action. By centering shared values like clean air and water, wildfire prevention, and access to nature, they are reframing environmental protection as common sense, not partisan. Through careful language, cross-party policymaking, and a focus on protecting public lands and communities, Amelia and Maya are helping build durable, bipartisan support for climate-resilient conservation that can last beyond any single election or administration. For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/unifying-a-partisan-nation-around-nature-with-amelia-joy-and-maya-cohn/
Unifying a Partisan Nation Around Nature
Nature is Nonpartisan is a bipartisan, solutions-focused coalition working to unite Americans around shared environmental goals. By fostering cross-party support for conservation and land stewardship, the organization hopes to reframe climate action as a unifying national priority rather than a partisan fight.
Establishing Nature as Middle Ground
In recent years, environmental politics in the U.S. have been paralyzed by partisan gridlock, stalling climate progress. Nature is Nonpartisan aims to break this deadlock by reframing environmentalism around common-sense values, such as safety, access to the outdoors, and community well-being. By engaging Americans across the political spectrum, the coalition seeks to depoliticize climate solutions and ground them in conservation principles that resonate more universally: protecting public lands, supporting disaster-affected communities, and ensuring access to clean air and water.
This approach gained national attention in early 2025 when founder and CFO Benji Backer, alongside coalition members, briefed White House staff on nonpartisan conservation strategies. A meeting scheduled for fifteen minutes extended well over an hour, ultimately influencing President Trump’s unexpected June 2025 signing of the “Make America Beautiful Again” executive order. The order focuses on conserving public lands, safeguarding wildlife, and securing clean drinking water. Backer underscored that wildfires, drought, and ecosystem collapse don’t just affect the environment; they threaten billions in outdoor-recreation revenue and undermine the hunting, fishing, and farming traditions valued across political lines.
Nature is Nonpartisan’s narrative emphasizes that environmental protection is not only about climate, but also the American landscape, economic security, and the natural heritage millions rely on and cherish.
Conservation as Climate Action
Nature is Nonpartisan’s work centers on four key conservation areas: managing forests to reduce wildfire risk, enhancing water quality and improving water infrastructure, enhancing natural disaster resilience, and promoting responsible land stewardship. Together, these priorities offer a practical, bipartisan path to protect ecosystems and communities most vulnerable to climate change.
Overall, emphasizing conservation provides a widely palatable, bipartisan entry point into climate action. By restoring ecosystems, sequestering carbon, and protecting biodiversity, these efforts simultaneously strengthen local economies — particularly in rural regions dependent on recreation and natural-resource industries — while building long-term climate resilience.
The Tension Beneath the Surface
Despite its promise, Nature is Nonpartisan’s work exists within a fraught political landscape. Environmentalism and conservatism are still often framed as ideologically incompatible, a perception the organization works actively to undo. While the “Make America Beautiful Again” executive order signals progress, critics argue it may be more symbolic than substantive, especially given President Trump’s longstanding dismissal of climate science. Some fear the order could serve more as a political performance than a genuine environmental advancement.
These tensions point to the broader challenge: decades of conservative skepticism toward climate science have made it difficult to ensure follow-through on policy. Nature is Nonpartisan hopes to continue confronting this distrust by reframing environmental protection around nationally shared values — family, future generations, clean water, clean air, and access to the outdoors — whether one is a Midwestern farmworker or a city resident.
The Power of Words and Bipartisan Policy
Communications Director Amelia Joy emphasizes that language is crucial to keeping these efforts genuinely nonpartisan. Because the word “climate” has become politically charged, Nature is Nonpartisan often avoids leading with it. Instead, Joy notes that many of the organization’s core priorities, from wildfire prevention to natural disaster resilience, are climate issues, but by centering them in everyday terms, the coalition can build durable, cross-party support that can outlast any single administration.
Policy Director Maya Cohn adds that progress doesn’t have to depend on who is in office. She emphasizes that policy advances can happen under any president or Congress if people are willing to work across political lines. For her, bridging divides and having honest conversations, even with those you disagree with, is the only way to create long-lasting environmental solutions.
About the Guests
Amelia Joy is the Communications Director at Nature is Nonpartisan and identifies as Conservative. Maya Cohn is the Policy Director at Nature is Nonpartisan and identifies as Progressive.
Resources
Further Reading
For a transcript, please visit https://climatebreak.org/unifying-a-partisan-nation-around-nature-with-amelia-joy-and-maya-cohn/
Ethan: I’m Ethan Elkind, and you’re listening to Climate Break. Climate solutions in a hurry. Today’s proposal: creating bipartisan support around conservation and land stewardship as a powerful tool for climate action. We first spoke with Communications Director Amelia Joy from Nature is Nonpartisan, a group working to unite Americans around shared environmental goals.
Joy: When we talk to people about making sure that every American has access to clean water, every American can breathe clean air, all communities are able to recover from natural disasters, they’re common sense issues that everyone, whether you voted for Trump in the last election, whether you voted for Harris, agree that these are issues that we can and should be able to come together and solve.
Ethan: By restoring ecosystems, capturing carbon, and reducing the severity of wildfires, conservation efforts can strengthen local economies while building climate resilience. But Joy says language is key to keeping these efforts nonpartisan.
Joy: We have leaned away from the word ‘climate’ because it has become divisive. Everything we’re working on affects climate, but with the goal of creating a nonpartisan solution that lasts longer than through the next election.
Ethan: We then talked to Maya Cohn, Nature is Nonpartisan’s Policy Director, on how misconceptions about environmental politics can lead to voter inaction. That’s why they’re working with policymakers from both parties to make these ideas actionable.
Cohn: A lot of people will say if you wanna do environmental policies you just need to elect Democrats. The negative that comes with that is that then you get this seesaw: regulation then deregulation, funding and then rescinding the funding and it doesn't benefit Americans.
Ethan: To learn more about Nature is Nonpartisan and how to encourage bipartisan collaboration around climate-resilient conservation, visit climatebreak.org.