Benji Backer

Benji Backer is the Founder and CEO of Nature Is Nonpartisan, a nonprofit that works across political, cultural and institutional lines to advance common-sense conservation solutions that Americans already agree on. Since launching in March 2025, the organization has focused on forest restoration and wildfire prevention, water quality and infrastructure, natural disaster resilience and land stewardship. It helped launch the Senate Stewardship Caucus, a group of four Democratic and four Republican senators working on public lands and rural communities.

As a freshman in college, Benji founded the American Conservation Coalition, the country’s largest conservative environmental organization. He is the best-selling author of The Conservative Environmentalist: Common Sense Solutions for a Sustainable Future and a TIME100 Climate honoree. He has been named a New York Times Changemaker, has been recognized with the Fortune 40 Under 40, Forbes 30 Under 30, Trellis 30 Under 30 and Grist 50, and a fellow of The Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity. He is a graduate of the University of Washington.

Above all, Benji is an avid outdoorsman who spends most of his free time in the mountains out West.