The Biophilia Foundation began its work with the acquisition, protection, and restoration of the Pritzlaff Ranch in San Ignacio, New Mexico. In the early 2000s, the foundation expanded its activities to include provisions of grants to organizations to benefit biodiversity conservation. In the last 22 years, the Biophilia Foundation has awarded over $6 million to nonprofit organizations throughout the United States, with a special focus on the arid Southwest and the Chesapeake Bay. More recently, the foundation has focused on applied research to scale arid land watershed restoration through carbon financing and fostering restorative local economies as alternative to extractive economies, based on the enhanced ecosystem services resulting from watershed restoration activities.