Michael Scisco | Conservation Director

wave

michael sciscoMichael is a trusted expert contractor that manages our land conservation program. He has spent over 15 years in the non-profit land conservation industry with another 10 years working as a consultant to private landowners for conservation and natural resource management strategies.

Michael is a licensed real estate professional with over 12 years’ experience transacting farm, ranch, and conservation lands. In addition to his work in land conservation and real estate, he also has nearly 20 years’ experience in geospatial technologies with an emphasis on land and community planning. He has worked to conserve directly and in partnership over 200,000 acres of land in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and North Carolina.

Michael has direct experience in conservation funding and planning for parks, greenspaces, green infrastructure, residential developments, large estate properties, and landscape scale conservation efforts. Through his conservation work, he has secured well over $200M in funding for conservation and transacted over $500M in land and other real estate. Through his geospatial work, he has produced thousands of mapping and design assets over his professional career. Michael focuses on creating information that is accurate, effective, and useful over time and is inspired by developing content and tools that enable people to become more engaged and informed. Examples include helping design green infrastructure planning for the Hill Country of Texas and discovering affordable housing opportunities in Los Angeles County.

Michael also gives back to his community and currently serves as Treasurer on the Board of Directors for the New Mexico Land Conservancy and is a Board Member of the City of Albuquerque Open Space Advisory Board.

Michael received a Graduate Certificate in GIS from Portland State University in Portland, Oregon and a B.S. in Environmental Science from Western Washington University, Huxley College of the Environment in Bellingham, Washington. Michael also holds a second-degree black belt in Shoshin Ryu Martial arts and is an avid tennis player. Michael hails from rural Arizona and Eastern Washington State.  He and his wife currently live in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico.

photo of children playing outdoors

Mandi Taylor, May 2025

How Green Spaces Improve Our Immune System

Like many other millennials, I grew up hearing tales of hardship from the older generations - like the infamous 12-mile, uphill both ways trek to school. We were often labeled as “soft” compared to their experiences. Now, when seeing the yo...

photo of kayakers paddling on the Cuyahoga River

Sam Warnock, April 2025

A River Under Fire: The Cuyahoga River's Comeback

Few rivers tell the story of environmental neglect and redemption quite like the Cuyahoga. Once a dumping ground for industrial waste, this Ohio river was so polluted that it caught on fire repeatedly before the passage of the Clean Water A...

photo of floods in rural farmlands

Mandi Taylor, April 2025

How Wetlands Impact Insurance Costs - Part Two

In the first part of our research into how wetlands impact insurance costs, we discussed the decline of wetlands across the U.S., amplified by recent legal changes that leave millions of acres unprotected. Now, we connect that ecological lo...

photo of wetlands with buildings in the background

Mandi Taylor, April 2025

How Wetlands Impact Insurance Costs - Part One

Welcome to the first installment of our Conservation Cares series! We often hear about land and natural resource conservation in broad strokes, but how does it tangibly affect our daily lives? This series of topics illustrates how different...