The Richard King Mellon Foundation established its American Land Conservation Program in the late 1980s and then spent more than $400 million to conserve 190 different pieces of land—like 375,000 acres in the Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge in Nevada, and 37,000 acres adjacent to the Alaska Peninsula National Wildlife Refuge. The Mellon Foundation donated $10 million to the Nature Conservancy purchase which created Gorges State Park in North Carolina (see 1999 entry). All told, the $2 billion foundation has funded the conservation of more than two million acres of American land, located in all 50 states.
- From Sea to Shining Sea: Richard King Mellon Foundation American Land Conservation Program 1988-2002 (Mellon Foundation, 2002)