Stay informed Our mission and history Environmental Defense Fund's mission is to preserve the natural systems on which all life depends. Guided by science and economics, we find practical and lasting solutions to the most serious environmental problems. What distinguishes Environmental Defense Fund is the combination of what we protect and how we protect it. We work to solve the most critical environmental problems facing the planet. This has drawn us to areas that span the biosphere: climate , oceans , ecosystems and health . Since these topics are intertwined, our solutions take a multidisciplinary approach. We work in concert with other organizations -- as well as with business, government and communities -- and avoid duplicating work already being done effectively by others. Over the years, EDF has brought a series of innovations to the work of protecting the environment. Today, our unique approach is the sum of all these innovations. How we began: A pioneering team Founders Art Cooley, Charlie Wurster and Dennis Puleston started EDF in 1967 to protect humans and wildlife from DDT. In the 1960s, the pesticide DDT was used widely. It caused eggshells to thin and break, threatening the survival of magnificent birds like the osprey, bald eagle and peregrine falcon. It is a persistent poison that works its way up the food chain, endangering people, too. On Long Island, a small conservation group included a researcher who had been documenting the decline of the osprey for more than a decade. He found that unhatched