B.A.
Mr. Knowles has acted as a real estate broker, consultant or principal on land conservation projects in California since 1989. He received his A.B. in American Studies from Stanford University in 1987 and is a licensed real estate broker with the State of California. Mr. Knowles is the Founder and President of Conservation Land Group based in Sausalito.
Mr. Knowles’ efforts have led to the permanent protection of over 100,000 acres of endangered species habitat, wetlands, wildlife corridors, working farms, coastal properties, and cultural/historic sites in the western U.S. VNLC provided ecological expertise for many of these projects. Mr. Knowles provides guidance to private landowners, non-profit conservancies and public agencies on land conservation priorities, charitable planning related to land preservation and strategies for securing acquisition funding from a variety of federal, state, local and philanthropic sources.
Mr. Knowles has considerable experience working with elected officials and community groups to build partnerships and coalitions on complex, multi-year acquisition projects. His transactional work includes property due diligence, overseeing land appraisers and natural resource specialists, and assisting in the resolution of legal and tax matters. While with The Trust for Public Land between 1989 and 2005, Mr. Knowles served on the City of San Diego’s Multiple Species Conservation Program Working Group which oversaw the implementation of a 175,000-acre regional preserve system. Mr. Knowles also handles real estate matters and mitigation credit marketing and sales for several mitigation/conservation banks in California.