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Webinars, Workshops and Conferences:

• Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference - This annual conference offers a dynamic opportunity to meet with your colleagues in conservation, advance your skills and work to solve some of your greatest challenges.
• Webinars - participate in a 90-minute online webinar
• Workshops - attend in-person, one-day training hosted either by the Land Trust Alliance or other groups
• Regional Conferences - meet your fellow conservation leaders to learn new ideas and discuss the latest conservation community news

Tools:

• Assessing Your Organization - highlight your strengths and weaknesses to more effectively target your land trust's efforts
• Standards and Practices Curriculum - learn how to implement Land Trust Standards and Practices, the guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust
• The Learning Center - take an online course, join a discussion forum, ask an expert a question or search the digital library
• Accreditation - evaluate your land trust's performance against Land Trust Standards and Practices to demonstrate your commitment to excellence

As part of our commitment to help land trusts grow stronger, the Land Trust Alliance provides people doing conservation work with opportunities to advance their success through unique learning and networking programs in communities all across the country.

"Marc Smiley talks about the 'audacity of perpetuity' that each land trust must face as we endeavor to meet the conservation and/preservation needs of the land entrusted to us. With a diverse background in non-profit management that ranges from Shakespeare festivals to battered women shelters, my land trust toolkit was a little light. Thanks to the Land Trust Alliance and its excellent training programs, I was able to gain knowledge about this type of non-profit quickly from the most respected sources in the industry.  

With tools from the Alliance, I completely understand the 'audacity of perpetuity' and I know what steps the Connemara Conservancy Foundation needs to take in order to fulfill our promise to Texas landowners. I wish other areas of the non-profit industry had something as meaningful, appropriate and thorough as the training programs provided by the Land Trust Alliance."

— Sandra Greenway, Executive Director, Connemara Conservancy Foundation

SAHC earned accreditation this March along with 11 other land trusts across the nation. Of the 1,700 land conservation groups in the country, a total of 93 have received this important distinction since the Commission was established in 2006.

“Becoming accredited is a crucial step for SAHC in order to assure our members, the landowners with whom we work, and the public that we follow rigorous ethical and professional standards,” said SAHC Executive Director, Carl Silverstein. “SAHC has always held itself to the highest possible standards, and this is our opportunity to be recognized formally for doing so.”

Accreditation is awarded to land trusts that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. Land trusts that are given this distinction are able to display the official accreditation seal in association with their name, indicating that they meet standards for excellence in their policies and practices, uphold the public trust and ensure that their conservation efforts are permanent.

“The accreditation seal is a mark of distinction in land conservation,” said the Commission’s Executive Director, Tammara Van Ryn. “The 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.”

Land trusts applying for accreditation submit extensive documentation and make a significant commitment of time and money to participate. In a rigorous review process, the Commission examines each application, interviews the land trust and evaluates multiple sources of information, including comments from the public.

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 vistas, wildlife habitat and places for people to enjoy. Across the country, local citizens and communities have come together to form land trusts to save the places they love, and have collectively conserved over 37 million acres of land.

Founded in 1974 to protect the Highlands of Roan and the Appalachian region, SAHC is one of the country’s oldest land trusts. Its mission is to conserve the unique plant and animal habitat, clean water, local farmland and scenic beauty of the mountains of North Carolina and east Tennessee for the benefit of present and future generations.

This year, with the help of its partners and members, SAHC will reach the milestone of protecting 50,000 acres throughout the mountain region, including key sites adjacent to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, in the Sandy Mush Farming community and along the Appalachian Trail and the Blue Ridge Parkway.

The Land Trust Alliance, of which the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy is a member, is a national conservation group based in Washington, D.C. that works to save the places people love by strengthening conservation throughout America. The Land Trust Accreditation Commission is an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance. More information on the accreditation program is available on the Commission’s website, www.landtrustaccreditation.org. Learn more about the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy and how to become a member at www.appalachian.org.  

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, made the announcement May 27.

The group of newly accredited land trusts includes land trusts protecting vast forests in Maine, wind-swept prairies in South Dakota and Nebraska, coastal bluffs and ranches in southern California, pristine watersheds in Washington and Wisconsin, and rolling Ohio farms. What they all have in common is their proven commitment to meeting national standards for excellence, upholding the public trust and ensuring that conservation efforts are permanent.

“The success of these land trusts directly depends on retaining the public’s trust, as well as the confidence of Congress and the IRS who have granted land conservation special tax incentives,” said Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance. “Accreditation is one way to demonstrate to the public that land trusts are operating at the highest standards.”

Read the press release from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission >>

Learn more about the six newly accredited land trusts >>

See a list of all 59 accredited land trusts that have been accredited since the fall of 2008 >>

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

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

Growing Number Reaches 130

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Congratulations to the 17 newly accredited land trusts that have just been awarded accreditation! This brings the total number of land conservation groups from across the country having earned this important distinction to 130, demonstrating to landowners, the conservation community and others that the land they protect today will remain protected tomorrow.

The Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance, made the announcement February 9, 2011.

Each land trust in this newly accredited group fills an important niche in their community and represents the diversity and creativity in protecting the places that give meaning to our lives. This group ranges from three all-volunteer land trusts working in New England to an organization working nationally to protect and restore wetland habitats. Each made a significant commitment of time and money to demonstrate the importance of meeting national standards for excellence, upholding the public’s trust and ensuring that conservation efforts are permanent— the common threads among all accredited groups.

“Congratulations to the 130 land trusts that have been awarded accreditation,” said Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance. “This is a significant milestone and proves that land trusts of every size and from every region have what it takes to earn the public’s trust, as well as the confidence of Congress and the IRS who have granted land conservation special tax incentives.”

Read the press release from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission >>

Learn more about the 17 newly accredited land trusts >>

See a list of all 130 accredited land trusts that have been accredited since the fall of 2008 >>

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