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Contact: Rob Aldrich
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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

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

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Rob Aldrich
Director of Communications
202-431-8848 | raldrich@lta.org

Pioneered New Approaches to Farmland and Working Forest Preservation in Their Five-County Region.

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Two Michigan land trusts received Land Trust Excellence Awards for collaborative leadership in land conservation and promoting the work of land trusts in Congress. Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy and Leelanau Conservancy were 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 2012: The National Land Conservation Conference in Salt Lake City, Utah, on September 30, 2012.

“Leelanau Conservancy and Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy have done amazing work demonstrating to Congress the critical importance of land conservation to the economic, cultural and environmental health of communities nationwide,” said Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance. “We presented this award to these two conservancies for their heroic work providing their communities with clean water, and protecting the farmland and other natural resources that make their part of the country so special.”

Farmland preservation is a key strategy for economic development in Northwest Lower Michigan, where the two conservancies operate. Agriculture contributes as much as $97.7 million annually to the local economy in the form of agricultural products sold. It employs more than 2,000 farm proprietors with net farm earnings of $6.6 million and more than 3,000 workers with a total payroll of $12.8 million.

Working closely together, the Leelanau Conservancy and the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy have pioneered new approaches to farmland preservation and working forest conservation in their five-county region.   

“This award from the Alliance is particularly meaningful to both of our land conservancies, in large part because it honors the close collaboration, sharing, and flow of ideas that has allowed us to be innovators in protecting what matters most to our members, the nurturing of a regional economy that is based on sustainable farming, forestry, and tourism.  We are proving what Teddy Roosevelt observed so long ago- ‘There is nothing more practical than the preservation of beauty,’” said Brian Price, executive director of Leelanau Conservancy.

Glen Chown, executive director of Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, said “This honor recognizes the significance of the innovative land protection work of our two conservancies – including and perhaps especially our joint farmland preservation efforts. Sharing the impact that farmland preservation has on our land-based economy helped to inform and increase bi-partisan Congressional support for the permanent protection of working lands. I am proud of the role our two organizations have played in helping to achieve that positive outcome - one that bodes well for our future.”

Bills to make permanent enhanced incentives that make saving land more affordable for landowners who are working the land now have an impressive 310 co-sponsors in the House, including majorities of both Democrats and Republicans – more co-sponsors than for any other tax bill in Congress.

About The Organizations

Since 1991 the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy, an accredited land conservation organization, has protected and cared for the region’s natural, scenic, farm and forest lands.  Their supporters and partnerships have enabled the Conservancy to protect over 35,000 acres of land and more than 113 miles of shoreline along the region’s exceptional rivers, lakes and streams. www.gtrlc.org

Since 1988 the Leelanau Conservancy, an accredited land conservation organization, has worked to conserve the land, water, and scenic character of the Leelanau Peninsula, one of the most cherished landscapes in the Great Lakes region.  The Conservancy has preserved over 9,600 acres and over 35 miles of shoreline, stream, and river frontage.  Developing a broad base of community support, the Leelanau Conservancy has worked with 143 families on land protection projects, and received support from over 3,400 donors in 2011, from a county with a permanent population of roughly 20,000. www.leelanauconservancy.org

The Land Trust Alliance is a national land 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. www.landtrustalliance.org

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Image: Glenn Chown, executive director of Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy (left) and Brian
Price, executive director of Leelanau Conservancy.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

 

Community Engagement Advances Conservation

 

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. Wade Martin, a tireless volunteer who has provided land trusts and landwoners across New Jersey with countless professional hours providing financial advice, estate planning and building collaborative relationships for the benefit of land conservation, was presented with the award this year at Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference in Salt Lake City Utah, on September 30, 2012.  

When Mr. Martin accepted the award, he said, “Growing up in a small town in New Jersey and watching the farmland disappear motivated me to find out how this development could be slowed. I grew up with farms, horses and cows around me; now there are cars, houses and bigger schools. I graduated from high school with 111 kids in my class and now my three children attend the same school with 500 kids per class.”

Mr. Martin’s first introduction to land preservation was in 1994, when he met Linda Mead from the D&R Greenway Land Trust in Princeton, NJ., at an educational seminar that D&R hosted for local financial advisors and which featured attorney Steve Small as the speaker. That meeting opened Mr. Martin’s eyes to how beneficial land preservation can be for everyone involved. As part of the Martin-Rizzo Group at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management (MSWM), Mr. Martin has worked to make their clients aware of the benefits of land preservation. Mr. Martin, along with MSWM, has now taken the land preservation model nationwide to help other financial advisors and their land-owning clients explore various options in preserving their land and their families’ legacies.

Ms. Mead and Mr. Martin had a vision to train and educate land trusts and financial advisors across the country about working together to increase the pace of land conservation.  This vision came to fruition in June 2012 at the Johnson Education Center, which is D&R Greenway’s base inNJ. In partnership with the Land Trust Alliance and D&R Greenway, MSWM hosted the National Pilot Training Program for land trust executives, attorneys and financial advisors. Eight land trusts, coupled with eight MSWM financial advisors and eight attorneys from each of the land trusts’ regions, were brought into Princeton for a two-day seminar. The participants left the training with a collective exclamation: “This is groundbreaking stuff.” The states represented were Colorado, Michigan, Connecticut, Alabama, New York, Virginia, Massachusetts and Florida.

Mr. Martin has assisted in preserving land ranging from 1 acre to 2,000 acres. One of his most memorable land preservation projects was bridging the gap between an offer of $23m from a developer to build 143 houses on a large parcel of farmland and a land preservation offer of $14m to preserve the property. After working with the town, the landowner and their advisors, Mr. Martin was able to help the township bridge the financial gap and preserve the property in such a way that everyone came out a winner.  

Mr. Martin has most recently been working with the Land Trust Alliance and its Corporate Council, of which MSWM is a founding member, on helping corporations be great partners in preserving land. Additionally, Mr. Martin is also involved in the Montgomery Township Education Foundation (MTEF), which supports expenses for children in town that the school budget does not cover. And he also works extensively with the disabled community, helping people with conditions such as cerebral palsy, autism and other physical handicaps to live their lives to the fullest.

Still residing in the town he grew up in with his wife and three children, Mr. Martin’s current home is just around the corner from the house he grew up in, where his parents still live. The most rewarding experiences for Mr. Martin in working on behalf of land preservation are when his children see a sign that says preserved land and, when they ask, he can tell them that he had a part in preserving that land.

About the D&R Greenway Land Trust

D&R Greenway Land Trust is central New Jersey's nonprofit land preservation organization, founded in 1989 through the collaboration and vision of four organizations: the Stony Brook - Millstone Watershed Association, Friends of Princeton Open Space, Regional Planning Partnership, and the Delaware & Raritan Canal Commission. Founders, including Jim Amon, Rosemary Blair, Dennis Davidson, Sam Hamill, and Bob Johnston, realized that our region's open space was threatened with extinction. Their vision of an organization dedicated to the preservation of our remaining natural areas led to the creation of this small grassroots organization that completed the first nonprofit acquisition using Green Acres funds in 1992.

D&R Greenway Land Trust permanently preserves watershed lands and large-scale landscapes, thereby preventing the loss of open space to development. Our operating region consists of over 1,500 square miles, encompassing portions of the Delaware, Raritan and Millstone River watersheds and the Delaware & Raritan Canal. This includes Mercer, Hunterdon, Somerset, Middlesex, Burlington and Monmouth counties. We have broadened our work to include preservation of farmland in Salem County in the area of Mannington Meadows. Visit http://drgreenway.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.  This year marks the 30th Anniversary of the Alliance. Visit www.landtrustalliance.org.

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Photo: Wade Martin/ ©Ed Lefkowicz, photographer