Resource Renewal Institute (RRI)

In 2025, it was reported that RRI was party to a controversial settlement with the National Park Service that forced multi-generational ranchers to be removed from their land in Northern California. RRI and several other left-of-center environmentalist organizations reportedly coordinated with the Biden administration to reach a settlement removing the ranchers while forcing the ranchers to sign non-disclosure agreements in order to establish environmental protections over land close to Point Reyes National Seashore.  ⁴

Background

The Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) was founded by Huey Johnson, a prominent left-of-center environmental activist who made a name for himself opposing real estate development north of San Francisco in the 1970s. Johnson founded RRI in 1985 after working as the California Secretary of Resources from 1977 to 1982 under Governor Jerry Brown (D). ^{1 2}

According to its website, the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) has three main program focus areas: public lands, oceans and rivers, and “working landscapes.” ⁵

Its public lands project seeks to restore Point Reyes National Seashore in the National Park System in Northern California. The restoration focuses on rehabilitating the Native Tule elk by increasing elk territory through the removal of cattle ranchers from nearby grazing land. ^{6 4}

RRI’s oceans and rivers project focuses on protecting ocean biodiversity and ensuring clean river water. ⁷

RRI launched its working landscapes programs in 2012 to promote raising small freshwater fish in rice fields. ⁸

RRI also provides fiscal sponsorship to organizations and individual environmentalists, including environmentalist writer Jacques Leslie, Ocellus Media, the Chief Wilderness Protection League, the Washoe Meadows Community, Californians for Western Wilderness, and the Public Trust Alliance. ⁹

Activities

Opposition to Nuclear Energy

The Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) was a cosigner on an April 2021 letter to President Joe Biden asking the administration to promote weather dependent wind and solar power systems and “end the fossil fuel era.” The letter also advised the president to “Phase out nuclear energy as an inherently dirty, dangerous and costly energy source.” ¹⁰

Nuclear power plants produce no carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gas emissions, and from 1990 until 2021 accounted for 20 percent of American electricity production—the largest source of zero carbon electricity in the United States. ¹¹ An October 2018 proposal from The Nature Conservancy noted that zero-carbon nuclear plants produced 7.8 percent of total world energy output and recommended reducing carbon emissions by increasing nuclear capacity to 33 percent of total world energy output. ¹² A 2020 analysis from Our World in Data reported that nuclear energy “results in 99.9% fewer deaths than brown coal; 99.8% fewer than coal; 99.7% fewer than oil; and 97.6% fewer than gas,” making it “just as safe” as wind and solar power production. ¹³ The U.S. Department of Energy has concluded that “nuclear energy produces more electricity on less land than any other clean-air source” and that it would require “more than 3 million solar panels to produce the same amount of power as a typical commercial reactor or more than 430 wind turbines.” ¹⁴

Other Activism

In July 2025, RRI was one of over 600 nonprofits and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to sign a letter opposing a ruling by the House Homeland Security Committee in June 2025 demanding the financial records of over 200 NGOs accused of assisting the Biden Administration in settling migrants into the United States. ^{15 16} Committee Chairman Mark Green (R-TN) and Subcommittee Chairman Josh Brecheen (R-OK) commented in a letter sent to the NGOs in question claiming the Committee was “deeply concerned that NGOs that receive U.S. taxpayer dollars benefitted from the border crisis created by the Biden Administration, and stand ready to do so under future Democrat administrations.” ¹⁶ The letter signed by over 600 NGOs and non-profits claimed the Committee’s ruling targets “civic organizations that have provided services under valid federal contracts that were authorized and appropriated by Congress…[t]his effort appears to be an attempt to weaponize Congressional power and create the appearance of wrongdoing against those who the signers believe disagree with their political agenda.” ¹⁵

Leadership

The president of the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) is Deborah (Deb) Moskowitz. Moskowitz was previously the administrator of RRI from 2012 to 2017. Previously, she was a project director and health systems analyst at UnitedHealth Group. ^{17 18}

Controversy

2025 National Park Service Settlement

In January 2025, Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) was party to a settlement between the National Park Service and multiple dairy farms, cattle ranches, and other animal-agriculture concerns that forced family-owned ranches to vacate their leases on federal properties adjacent to the Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California. The settlement was agreed to for an undisclosed sum in the final days of the Biden administration. ⁴

The settlement was the result of years of lawsuits filed by RRI and other environmentalist advocacy groups against the National Park Service. RRI and the other groups argued that a National Park Service lease with ranchers harmed the environment and scenic values, including by producing carbon emissions. In 2025, the U.S. House of Representatives Natural Resource Committee investigated the settlement for its lack of transparency, with members of the committee alleging the Biden administration coordinated with the environmentalist groups to shut down family farms. The ranchers were allegedly forced to sign non-disclosure agreements, with the Natural Resources Committee arguing that the ranchers had been pressured by the National Park Service to “keep quiet.” ⁴

Other environmentalist groups that were party to the settlement include the Center for Biological Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project, and Advocates for the West. ⁴

Financials

According to tax filings, in 2023, the Resource Renewal Institute (RRI) reported $1,453,368 in revenue, $559,118 in expenses, and $1,833,174 in assets. Of the organization’s expenses, $218,788 was spent on promoting rice cultivation using fish, $140,255 for its restoring Point Reyes initiatives, and $102,980 for its instream water transfers program in Butte Creek. Of its revenue, RRI received $828,754 from contributions, gifts, and grants and $590,221 from sales of assets. ³

That same year, RRI reported giving a grant of $1,000 to Friends of the Butte Creek to support a research partnership, and a grant of $8,892 to Californians for Western Wilderness as a fiscal sponsorship. ³