Michael A. Mantell was general counsel of World Wildlife Fund and The Conservation Foundation, where he oversaw legal and congressional affairs for the two affiliated organizations. He directed the Successful Communities Program and the Land, Heritage and Wildlife Program of the foundation in Washington, D.C., and managed its State of the Environment and National Parks Projects. A principle author of National Parks for a New Generation  and A Handbook on Historic Preservation Law, he has also been involved in foundation work on wetland and floodplain protection, industrial siting, and environmental dispute resolution. Before joining the foundation in 1979, he was with the city attorney's office in Los Angeles, where he worked on various environmental matters. Michael Mantell is a graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and Lewis and Clark College Law School, and was chairman of an American Bar Association Subcommittee on Federal Land-Use Policy.

Luther Propst was field director for The Conservation Foundation's Successful Communities Program in Washington, D.C., where he oversaw the delivery of technical assistance in land use matters to communities nationwide. Before joining The Conservation Foundation, he was an attorney in the Land Use Group with the Hartford, Connecticut, law firm of Robinson & Cole, where he represented governments, developers, and local environmental organizations in land use matters. Luther Propst received his law degree and master's of regional planning from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He co-authored Managing Development in Small Towns,nbsp; published in 1984 by the American Planning Association, and has taught land use law as an adjunct professor at the Western New England College School of Law.

Stephen F. Harper is a Washington-based environment policy and planning consultant and writer. He formerly directed the Nonprofit Organization Assistance Program of the California State Coastal Conservancy and served as assistant director of the American Farmland Trust. He has also served in staff capacities with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Colorado State Legislative Council, and in several state agencies in New Jersey. He authored The Nonprofit Primer,  a guidebook to management of citizen conservation organizations, published by the California State Conservancy. Stephen F. Harper has a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, a B.A. from University of Colorado, and has completed additional studies at the University of Pennsylvania.