Laser-Focused on Conservation For Nick Dilks ’92, the land along the Farmington River in Simsbury was a haven for bird-watching, fishing and exploring during his years at Westminster. A lifelong naturalist, Nick is co-founder and managing partner of Baltimore-based Ecosystems Investment Partners (EIP), a private investment firm that mobilizes capital to deliver large-scale ecological restoration and conservation. “We balance the notion of restoring and protecting, while allowing development at the same time,” explained Nick. “My job is to execute projects that restore and conserve resources paid by the development that is occurring.” Through its investment funds, EIP acquires, restores and permanently protects priority conservation properties and sells the credits generated by them to customers who must offset their unavoidable environmental impacts. Since it began in 2006, Nick’s firm has restored more than 44,000 acres of wetlands and 176 miles of streams in 13 states. Each project that uses EIP’s credits and offsets must undergo a rigorous approval process before mitigating is even an option. “No one is allowed to wantonly waste resources,” said Nick. “There has to be an economic justification, and they must demonstrate they cannot avoid the impact and have done everything feasible to minimize it. Projects and their offsets must be approved by multiple federal, state and local agencies, including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.” Nick’s father, Peter Dilks ’63, was a founder of the firm Public Financial Management in Philadelphia, where Nick grew up. “He helped not-for-profits get financing for public works projects and taught me about doing business for a good cause,” said Nick. “We can develop land and still engage in environmental protection. I awoke to that notion when I was 16 or 17 years old and have pursued it ever since. I am passionate about the environment, but I didn’t want to say no to everything since that does not address jobs or human welfare issues.” At Westminster, Nick was founder and president of the Environmental Awareness Club and the Outing Club, and was a gifted artist noted for his drawings of North American birds. “I had been laser-focused on conservation since before I attended Westminster,” he said. “My father and uncle were both great outdoorsmen, and my grandmother was a naturalist and bird-watcher.” In addition to his many outdoor endeavors as a Martlet, Nick played football and hockey, served as junior prefect and was co-editor-in-chief of The Westminster News.
Among his favorite teachers was science teacher Bill Sistare. “You need rigorous underpinnings of good science in my field,” said Nick. He also reflects fondly on outdoor activities with faculty member Scott Stevens, saying, “He was very encouraging to me as a young person.” Nick attended Duke University, where he earned a B.A. in environmental science and policy in 1996. He then joined The Conservation Fund, serving as vice president of real estate while concurrently completing his MBA at the Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland. Following his tenure at The Conservation Fund, he co-founded EIP in 2006. EIP is now one of the largest sources of capital for conservation and restoration in the United States. When asked about where he thinks EIP will be focused in the coming years, he replied, “Water quality is one of the preeminent environmental problems we can address and it is understood that large-scale restoration of our streams and wetlands is how we can get water quality back.” Among EIP’s most recent projects is a restoration benefiting the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. “The Chesapeake Bay is experiencing water quality issues associated with fertilizer runoff and the resulting algae blooms extracting oxygen out of the water,” said Nick. EIP and its partners were able to reduce nutrient and sediment discharges to the bay by restoring over 76,000 linear feet (almost 15 miles) of streams in the upper Chesapeake Bay watershed. In recognition of its work, the Chesapeake Conservancy named EIP a Champion of the Chesapeake. Nick’s wife, Martina, and their children, Margaret and Peter, join Nick’s passion for the outdoors and love to fish, hunt and hike. They are also part of the next generation of the Dilks family spending time on the family’s farm in northern Maryland, where they often see Nick’s uncle, Charlie Dilks ’59. Nick said that when he first visited Westminster, he knew it was the place for him. “I am gently introducing the idea of boarding school to our children,” he said. “They are curious but don’t understand. I didn’t at their age, either.”
Nick Dilks ’92 hiking in England with his daughter.
Spring 2020
63
