California's Coastal Conservancy has a unique mandate that goes beyond traditional regulatory functions to repair ecological damage to wetlands, streams, and coastal watersheds. Based on extensive interviews and review of the literature, this paper considers the prospects for transferring or adapting the Conservancy model to three other coastal states: New Jersey, New York, and Massachusetts. This paper considers unmet wetlands management needs that a Conservancy could fulfill, identifies major obstacles that could block creation of such a bureau, and suggests ways to overcome these obstacles and proceed with state‐sponsored programs of habitat restoration.