Land Trust Alliance

Young Milwaukee: A Midwestern City Updates Its Recipe

Kimberly Seese — 2010-11-17T00:00:00Z

November 17, 2010 | ReadyMade | Milwaukee, WI

Yoga Adventure: Stretching Deep inside a 10,000-year-old Utah Crater

Kimberly Seese — 2012-03-01T05:00:00Z

March 1, 2012 | The Salt Lake Tribune | UT

Where We've Been

Kimberly Seese — 2010-11-05T16:45:00Z

Our voice is getting louder. Together we are stronger.

Rally is an amazing time for land conservationists to gather to learn, share ideas and inspire one another to strengthen our work to build strong communities with open space, clean air and water, sustainable food sources and natural habitats.

Rally is hosted around the country to highlight the diverse landscapes our 1,700+ land trusts work tirelessly to protect.

We hope to see you there!

Year	Dates	Attendees	Location
2014	Sept 18 - 20	You + ?	Providence, RI
2013	Sept 17 - 19	You + ?	New Orleans, LA
2012	Sept 29 - Oct 2	1,615	Salt Lake City, UT
2011	Oct 13 - 16	1,412	Milwaukee, WI
2010	Oct 2 - 5	1,867	Hartford, CT
2009	Oct 11 - 14	1,771	Portland, OR
2008	Sept 18 - 21	1,696	Pittsburgh, PA
2007	Oct 3 - 6	2,205	Denver, CO
2006	Oct 12 - 15	1,812	Nashville, TN
2005	Oct 14 - 17	1,838	Madison, WI
2004	Oct 28 - 31	2,150	Providence, RI
2003	Oct 16 - 19	1,685	Sacramento, CA
2002	Oct 26 - 29	1,822	Austin, TX
2001	Sept 29 - Oct 2	1,734	Baltimore, MD
2000	Oct 19 - 22	1,435	Portland, OR
1999	Oct 14 - 17	1,245	Snowmass, CO
1998	Oct 17 - 20	1,152	Madison, WI
1997	Sept 27 - 30	1,014	Savannah, GA
1996	Oct 17 - 20	1,134	Burlington, VT
1995	Oct 15 - 19	858	Pacific Grove, CA
1994	Oct 29 - Nov 2	746	Chattanooga, TN
1993	Sept 29 - Oct 3	622	Big Sky, MT
1991	Sept 21 - 25	700	Waterville Val, NH
1990	Jun 16 - 19	554	Villanova, PA
1988	Sept 25 - 28	347	Estes Park, CO
1987	Feb 8 - 11	276	Pacific Grove, CA
1985	Nov 7 - 9	257	Washington, D.C.

Westerly Land Trust organizes cleanup of Pawcatuck River

Kimberly Seese — 2010-05-20T17:08:06Z

May 18, 2010 | The Westerly Sun | RI

Utah: America’s Big Backyard

Kimberly Seese — 2012-06-12T04:00:00Z

June 12, 2012 | America's Great Outdoors | UT

Top Land Prize Northern Michigan Bound

Kimberly Seese — 2012-10-01T04:00:00Z

October 1, 2012 | The Ticker | Traverse City , MI

Tommy Wyche Honored with National Conservation Service Award

Kimberly Seese — 2011-10-26T18:57:19Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rob Aldrich
Director of Communications
202-638-4725 | raldrich@lta.org
Photos available; email pressroom@lta.org

Friend of the Blue Ridge Mountains

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Every year, one land conservation leader is selected to receive the Land Trust Alliance’s prestigious National Conservation Service Award for making a significant contribution to the advancement of land conservation. Mr. Tommy Wyche, Esq. an indefatigable voice for the Blue Ridge Mountains for the past 40 years, was presented with the award this year at Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference in Milwaukee, WI, on October 14, 2011.

Mr. Wyche is an extraordinary individual who has spent decades tirelessly working for the protection of 90,000 acres of the Blue Ridge Escarpment in North and South Carolina. The Cherokee call the Escarpment where the Blue Ridge Mountains come to a sudden and dramatic end and drop off 2,000 feet “The Blue Wall.” It is a wonderful showcase of cliffs, gorges and waterfalls that has been recognized as a “global hot spot” for biological diversity.

In an effort to conserve this gemstone, Wyche founded the Naturaland Trust in 1972 to spearhead the effort. From Duke Power holding 50,000 acres to the Greenville Water System holding 10,000 acres – he then worked with all the landowners in that area to protect 12,000 camp site acres. By engaging the generosity of the R.K. Mellon Foundation through a challenge grant, he challenged all the entities from the power and water companies to the states of North Carolina and South Carolina. He even hired crews of high school and college students to construct trails, engaging the next generation of conservationists. Never one to rest on his laurels, Wyche has devoted the last 10 years to protecting other important missing pieces of the Blue Wall, comprising over 25,000 acres.

An avid outdoorsman, Wyche has spent two two-week backpacking trips to Alaska, one in Kenai Peninsula, one in the Brooks Range above the Arctic Circle; he has traveled on a 320-mile canoe trip with his daughter from the Atlantic Ocean up St. Mary's River, through the Okefenokee Swamp and down the Suwanee River to the Gulf of Mexico; and has made a three-week trek in Nepal, climbing to Lake TeIIicho, one of the highest lakes in the world at 15,600 feet. His is also an accomplished engineer with three patents, has designed and sponsored one of the only suspension bridges in South Carolina constructed over Raven Cliff Falls in the Mountain Bridge Wilderness, and has authored several books, including "Conserve A Legacy: Natural Lands and Waters in South Carolina." (2009). Married, with three children, Wyche resides in Greenville, SC.

And while Mr. Wyche couldn’t be at Rally, we welcomed Frank Holleman to accept the award on his behalf.

About The Land Trust Alliance

The Alliance is a national conservation organization that works in three ways to save the places people love. First, we increase the pace of conservation, so more land and natural resources get protected. Second, we enhance the quality of conservation, so the most important lands get protected using the best practices in the business. And third, we ensure the permanence of conservation by creating the laws and resources needed to defend protected land over time. The Land Trust Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., and has several regional offices.

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Thoughts about the Land Trust Rally

Kimberly Seese — 2011-10-24T20:55:00Z

October 24, 2011 | Wilson Street Urban Farm | Buffalo, NY

The Parks of Frederick Law Olmsted

Kimberly Seese — 2010-11-04T00:00:00Z

November 4, 2010 | WUWM - Milwaukee Public Radio | WI

The Best Things to Do in Hartford, CT

prichardson — 2009-12-23T19:13:11Z

SW Michigan Land Conservancy Receives Land Trust Excellence Award

Peshie Chaifetz — 2010-10-04T02:45:00Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rob Aldrich, Director of Communications
202-431-8848 | raldrich@lta.org
Photos available; e-mail pressroom@lta.org

Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy
Receives National Land Trust Excellence Award

WASHINGTON, DC – Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC) has been presented with a national conservation award for its pioneering work in the land trust field in developing and implementing conservation management plans for important natural areas and setting the example for effective collaboration in conservation.

The SWMLC was selected by The Land Trust Alliance of Washington, DC, from more than 1,700 land trusts across the country, to receive its National Land Trust Excellence Award, which was presented at Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference in Hartford, Connecticut, on October 3, 2010.

SWMLC’s Stewardship staff members are recognized as both regional and national leaders in conservation management. They have developed partnerships with organizations such as the Stewardship Network, Natural Areas Association (NAA), and Defenders of Wildlife to provide workshops and seminars across the country. They have been sought after to share their expertise at numerous conferences and training events for the Land Trust Alliance, Center for Collaborative Conservation, Stewardship Network, NAA, Heart of the Lakes Center for Land Conservation Policy, and several other conservation organizations.

“Our long-term viability, and our ability to create meaningful work in perpetuity, whether it’s scenic or cultural or protecting natural landscapes, is only going to be effective if we become part of this broader community’s fabric,” said SWMLC Executive Director Pete Ter Louw, who accepted the award for the Conservancy.

SWMLC created an innovative model for prioritization that incorporates broad stakeholder involvement and geographic information systems analysis to identify areas with critical conservation values for protection and management. The long list of stakeholders involved in these projects include federal agencies, state agencies, county officials, conservation districts, township and city officials, community foundations, private conservation organizations, universities, nature centers, community leaders, and private landowners.

The Land Trust Alliance recognized the success of this model and provided SWMLC a Strategic Conservation Planning grant to use to prioritize conservation actions in and around the 25,000-acre Barry State Game Area. Implementation of the resulting plan began immediately as a private family foundation, engaged in the planning process, stepped forward to make its core mission be the protection and restoration of priority lands. The same family foundation, the USFWS, MDNRE, Ducks Unlimited, and SWMLC have begun a long-term relationship coordinating restoration management between adjacent but separately held parcels in the same region. These partners also brought together several additional conservation organizations to receive a $1 million North American Wetland Conservation Act grant.

Rand Wentworth, President of the Land Trust Alliance, said in bestowing the award that “As a direct result of their willingness to seek out regional expertise, intergovernmental cooperation, and coordination with all of the regional members and the neighbors, the SWMLC has been able to make incredible conservation happen.” He added, “Together with fellow consevationists, the members of the SWMLC have found an effective way to preserve the quality of life and unique character of their community — now and forever."

About The Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC)
SWMLC was founded in 1991 to protect the wild and scenic areas in the nine counties of southwest
Michigan. The 3.5 million acre service area, covering an expanse the size of Connecticut, is a crossroads of ecological regions. Eastern deciduous forests meet the Midwest prairies while southern mesic woodlands border northern coniferous forests and bogs. Large river systems wind throughout the countryside on their way to Lake Michigan and the largest freshwater dunes in the world. It is home to rural farms, urban centers, Great Lakes shoreline destinations, and Michigan’s largest State Game Areas – all within a short drive from Chicago, Indianapolis, and Detroit. Visit www.swmlc.org.

About The Land Trust Alliance
The Alliance is a national conservation organization that works in three ways to save the places people love. First, we increase the pace of conservation, so more land and natural resources get protected. Second, we enhance the quality of conservation, so the most important lands get protected using the best practices in the business. And third, we ensure the permanence of conservation by creating the laws and resources needed to defend protected land over time. The Land Trust Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., and has several regional offices. Visit www.landtrustalliance.org.

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Scenic Hudson Receives National Land Trust Excellence Award

Kimberly Seese — 2011-10-25T21:15:00Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rob Aldrich
Director of Communications
202-638-4725 | raldrich@lta.org

Excellence in Collaboration
For Impacting Whole Landscapes

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Scenic Hudson has been presented with a national conservation award for its pioneering work in the land trust field in developing and implementing collaborative conservation management plans for important natural landscapes.

Scenic Hudson was selected by the Land Trust Alliance of Washington, D.C., from more than 1,700 land trusts across the country, to receive its National Land Trust Excellence Award, which was presented at Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on October 14, 2011.

Scenic Hudson is an impactful environmental organization and land trust working in New York’s Hudson River Valley to protect and restore the Hudson River and its majestic landscape. A crusader for the valley since 1963, Scenic Hudson is credited with saving the beautiful Storm King Mountain from a destructive industrial project and helping to launch the modern environmental movement.

“Scenic Hudson was born of the passion of people who loved the place and said ‘no’ to destruction of an icon and of a sacred mountain,” said Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance. “We presented this award because of Scenic Hudson’s breadth of vision and their accomplishment. They have embraced the concept of large landscapes, have been a model partner in engaging with diverse communities, people of color and other nonprofits. They have put their money and efforts in doing their work where people live for healthy communities.”

Having conserved almost 28,000 acres of lands that contribute to the scenic fabric, ecological integrity and agricultural viability of the Hudson River Valley, Scenic Hudson has a long and distinguished track record of collaborative conservation -- designing a model for conservation easements and establishing a collaborative process. The tangible outcomes resulting from this process helped spur several municipalities to create their own farmland protection programs and funding streams. Scenic Hudson has collaborated with several of these communities to conserve farms that are shared priorities.

Scenic Hudson has contributed to a spirit of collaboration and information-sharing between the land trusts of the Hudson Valley. This has occurred at an especially critical time because of the economic downturn and the stress that many nonprofit land trusts are feeling. In 2007, Scenic Hudson carried out a strategic land conservation plan, using geographic information systems technology, to identify the most critical scenic, ecological and agricultural resources in the Hudson River corridor. The result of this analysis was the identification of 65,000 acres of land of the utmost conservation priority. Scenic Hudson then launched a collaborative land conservation campaign, which it calls Saving the Land That Matters Most, to increase the pace and impact of their work.

It engaged in this campaign with 15 partner land trusts and conservation organizations, including county and local land trusts, regional and national conservation organizations. The groups meet several times a year to update each other on progress in meeting shared goals, and to identify ways to collaborate further. Today, Scenic Hudson is further partnering with state conservation agencies on the pursuit of shared conservation goals for the region.

“I look at Scenic Hudson and I think: What would I aspire for any of us in land conservation to do? Working in cities, working with diverse populations, working with great partners, bringing farm-to-table, connecting the agriculture communities with the urban communities; Scenic Hudson is doing all of that,” said Wentworth.

When presented with the award, Steve Rosenberg, senior vice president; executive director of the Scenic Hudson Land Trust, Inc. said: Our mission will always outstrip our means …so to be mission driven and outcome oriented, there’s no room for thinking we can do this without a strategic framework and without the support of others.” Rosenberg added, “We are fortunate to have so many committed partners working with us. As we continue our work, we are beginning to see the puzzle pieces come together to reveal a picture of regional, landscape-scale conservation, and the public increasingly understands and supports our work.”

About The Land Trust Alliance

The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation organization that works in three ways to save the places people love. First, we increase the pace of conservation, so more land and natural resources get protected. Second, we enhance the quality of conservation, so the most important lands get protected using the best practices in the business. And third, we ensure the permanence of conservation by creating the laws and resources needed to defend protected land over time. The Land Trust Alliance is based in Washington, D.C., and has several regional offices.

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Salt Lake City Visitors’ Guide: Suggestions for Time Off the Slopes

Kimberly Seese — 2012-05-03T20:00:00Z

May 3, 2012 | The Salt Lake Tribune | UT

Peter Stein Receives Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award

Kimberly Seese — 2012-10-15T17:25:00Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rob Aldrich
Director of Communications
202-800-2225 | raldrich@lta.org

Forest and Rural Lands Conservationist

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Peter Stein of Norwich, VT, was announced as the winner of the Land Trust Alliance’s prestigious Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award. Stein was selected for the award for his vision and dedication to land conservation, which have resulted in extraordinary gains for the land trust movement. Stein’s commitment to working closely with individual communities developing strategic and viable conservation plans has produced remarkable benefits for both people and conservation.

Stein is the seventh recipient of this honor awarded by the Land Trust Alliance to recognize outstanding leadership, innovation and creativity in land conservation.

Stein was also named to serve in the Kingsbury Browne Fellowship at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy for 2012-2013. In his role in this fellowship, named after Boston attorney Kingsbury Browne (1922-2005), Stein will engage in research, writing and mentoring with the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Cambridge-based think-tank with a focus on land policy. He will serve in their Department of Planning and Urban Form.

Both awards were presented in Salt Lake City, Utah, at the Land Trust Alliance’s Rally 2012: The National Land Conservation Conference, the largest annual gathering of professional and volunteer conservation leaders in the U.S.

In his acceptance remarks, Stein said, “I’ve been inspired by Kingsbury over the years and I’m very pleased to join the company of past award recipients, all of whom I know quite well as personal friends and professional colleagues.”

He added, “The most durable and major accomplishment in the environmental movement in this country over the last 20 years has been the land trust movement. We have engaged communities who care about places, and it is land trusts that translate those engaged communities into both land conservation action and political action.”

When presenting the award, Michael Dowling, Land Trust Alliance chairman of the board, said, “Peter has dedicated his professional career and a great deal of his personal time to thoughtful, intelligent land stewardship. His leadership has contributed to both the nonprofit and the corporate worlds and, through honorable work on both sides of the fence, Peter has helped demonstrate that development can be both profitable and sustainable.”

About Mr. Stein

Peter joined The Lyme Timber Company in 1990 and provides leadership in the development and structuring of conservation-oriented forestland and rural land purchases and dispositions. Peter also manages the Company’s conservation advisory business.

Prior to joining The Lyme Timber Company, Peter was senior vice president of The Trust for Public Land. Peter lectures extensively at graduate schools and professional conferences on conservation investment schemes and strategies. He is a member of the boards of the National Alliance of Forestland Owners, the Forest History Society and the Hubbard Brook Research Foundation. In addition, he is a former board chair of the Land Trust Alliance, served as a founding commissioner of the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, and serves as a member of the Advisory Board of Rose Smart Growth Real Estate Fund No. 1. Peter earned a B.A. with Highest Honors from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1975, was a Loeb Fellow and received a Certificate in Advanced Environmental Studies from Harvard University in 1981.

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy began the Kingsbury Browne Fellowship in association with the Land Trust Alliance, offering its first Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award in 2006. Winners are chosen from a group of their peers, honoring lifetime contributions to the field of land conservation and work reflecting the values that Kingsbury Browne brought to his own seminal achievements.

The fellowship has previously been awarded to Audrey C. Rust, President Emeritus, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Jay Espy, former president of Maine Coast Heritage Trust and current executive director of the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation; Jamie Williams, former director of The Nature Conservancy’s Northern Rockies Initiative and current president and CEO of The Wilderness Society; Laurie A. Wayburn, co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust; Mark Ackelson, president of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation; and Darby Bradley, former president of the Vermont Land Trust and current special assistant for donor and government relations.

About The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is a leading resource for key issues concerning the use, regulation and taxation of land. Providing high quality education and research, the Institute strives to improve public dialogue and decisions about land policy. Visit www.lincolninst.edu.

About The Land Trust Alliance

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Photo caption: Land Trust Alliance Board Chairman Michael Dowling (L) with Peter Stein (R) receiving the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award at Rally 2012.

Nature: A Glimpse of Springtime in Utah

Kimberly Seese — 2012-04-15T04:00:00Z

April 15, 2012 | CBSnews.com

Land Trust Alliance

Young Milwaukee: A Midwestern City Updates Its Recipe

Yoga Adventure: Stretching Deep inside a 10,000-year-old Utah Crater

Where We've Been

Our voice is getting louder. Together we are stronger.

Westerly Land Trust organizes cleanup of Pawcatuck River

Utah: America’s Big Backyard

Top Land Prize Northern Michigan Bound

Tommy Wyche Honored with National Conservation Service Award

Friend of the Blue Ridge Mountains

About The Land Trust Alliance

Thoughts about the Land Trust Rally

The Parks of Frederick Law Olmsted

The Best Things to Do in Hartford, CT

SW Michigan Land Conservancy Receives Land Trust Excellence Award

Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy Receives National Land Trust Excellence Award

Scenic Hudson Receives National Land Trust Excellence Award

Excellence in Collaboration For Impacting Whole Landscapes

About The Land Trust Alliance

Salt Lake City Visitors’ Guide: Suggestions for Time Off the Slopes

Peter Stein Receives Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award

Forest and Rural Lands Conservationist

About Mr. Stein

About The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy

About The Land Trust Alliance

Nature: A Glimpse of Springtime in Utah

Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy
Receives National Land Trust Excellence Award

Excellence in Collaboration
For Impacting Whole Landscapes