POST Earns National Recognition

For Immediate Release
September 30, 2008

Contact: Nina Nowak
Director of Communications
Phone: (650) 854-7696
E-mail: nnowak@openspacetrust.org

Accreditation Awarded by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission

Palo Alto, CA— Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has become one of the first land trusts nationwide to be awarded accredited status by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, based in Washington, D.C.

 “Accredited land trusts meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever,” said Commission Executive Director Tammara Van Ryn. “The accreditation seal lets the public know that the accredited land trust has undergone an extensive, external review of the governance and management of its organization and the systems and policies it uses to protect land.”

POST was one of several land trusts across the country selected in 2006 by the Land Trust Alliance, a national conservation group representing more than 1,700 land trusts across the United States, to develop its new accreditation program. As part of the pilot program, POST helped shape the accreditation process and set an important example for other land trusts to follow.

“POST’s accredited status demonstrates our continued commitment to permanent land conservation," said POST President Audrey Rust. “POST has been going strong for 31 years and has established itself as a leader in local land protection. During that time, the land trust movement has matured and the time was right to establish accreditation as a goal for all land trusts. Now that we have gone through this rigorous program, our organization is all the stronger for it.”

POST joined 38 other land trusts awarded accreditation at a special ceremony earlier this month at “Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference” in Pittsburgh, Pa. The event, hosted by the Land Trust Alliance, is the largest gathering of land conservationists in the country.

In 2005, POST completed a $200 million campaign called “Saving the Endangered Coast” to preserve open lands along the San Mateo Coast. More recently, the nonprofit land trust raised $29.7 million to protect Mindego Hill, a prominent landmark and historic ranch along Skyline Ridge on the San Francisco Peninsula. POST is also intensifying its efforts in the western hillsides of south Santa Clara County, where the need for land conservation is especially urgent.

Local citizens and communities come together to form land trusts to save the places they love. Land trusts throughout the country have worked with willing landowners to save more than 37 million acres of places people care about, including forests, beaches, parkland, farms and wildlife habitat. Strong, well-managed land trusts provide local communities with effective champions and caretakers of their critical land resources, and safeguard the land through the generations. Conserving land helps ensure clean air and drinking water, food security, scenic landscapes and views, recreational places, and habitat for the diversity of life on earth.

Accredited land trusts are able to display a seal indicating to the public that they meet national standards for excellence, uphold the public trust and ensure that conservation efforts are permanent. The seal is a mark of distinction in land conservation.

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About POST

POST is a leading private, nonprofit land trust dedicated to preserving the beauty, character and diversity of the San Francisco Peninsula and Santa Cruz Mountain range. Since its founding in 1977, the organization has been responsible for saving 60,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties. For more information about POST, please visit www.openspacetrust.org.



About the Land Trust Accreditation Commission

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission awards the accreditation seal to community institutions that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. The Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance established in 2006, is governed by a volunteer board of diverse land conservation and nonprofit management experts from around the country. More information is available on the Commission’s website, www.landtrustaccreditation.org.