Over 25 years, ConocoPhillips has contributed some $2.3 million to PLJV for use as seed money to get the ball rolling on conservation and habitat projects. One such project resulted in creation of an oasis, on the arid eastern Colorado plains. The Kiowa Creek area was a project with a local economic development fund out of Eads, Colorado, that was looking to gain some wildlife tourism coming to the area, and they had some property they wanted to restore.

Playa Lakes Joint Venture has enjoyed a 25-year partnership with ConocoPhillips, in which the company has provided in-kind contributions and expertise, and some $2.3 million the Joint Venture has awarded in the form of grants to help get conservation projects started. An example of such a project is found in north central Kansas. In 2012, the state purchased 160 acres of salt-marsh wetland in Lincoln County from a private elderly landowner who was interested in making certain his land would never be developed.

The ConocoPhillips company has been interested in the High Plains region since Frank and L.E. Phillips established Phillips Petroleum Company at Bartlesville in 1917. Since the start of Playa Lakes Joint Venture in 1989, ConocoPhillips has been the lead corporate participant — providing the Joint Venture with in-kind support, employee expertise, and, money to kickstart bird habitat conservation projects.