• Government Affairs Intern (Washington, D.C.)

Join a growing and successful organization that supports a network of 1600 land trusts. Together, land trusts have conserved more land than in all of the national parks in the lower 48 states. Our work is making a difference in communities across America. As the national leader of America's land trusts, the Land Trust Alliance works to dramatically increase the pace and quality of private land conservation in America. Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance has mobilized the energy of more than a thousand land trusts and has created an unprecedented grassroots movement, one that has successfully saved more than thirty-four million acres of land and has the potential to save millions more.

The Land Trust Alliance is an equal opportunity employer and will not discriminate because of race, creed, color, national origin, sexual orientation, military status, sex, disability, genetic predisposition or carrier status, or marital status.

Contact: Russ Shay
Director of Public Policy
202-638-4725, ext. 305 | rshay@lta.org

WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Voluntary conservation of private land received a boost yesterday when President Obama mentioned the work of land trusts in his remarks introducing the landmark America’s Great Outdoors Report at a reception in the East Room of the White House. The collective voice of land trusts was reflected in the report, which proposes to extend the enhanced tax incentive for conservation easement donations beyond 2011, fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), and focus a portion of LWCF on innovative projects that support urban parks, community green spaces and large-scale land conservation.

Mr. Obama said that “at a time when America’s open spaces are controlled by a patchwork of groups, from government to land trusts to private citizens, it’s clear that conservation in the 21st century is going to take more than what we can do here in Washington…Meeting the new test of environmental stewardship means finding the best ideas at the grassroots level, it means helping states, communities and nonprofits protect their own resources, and it means figuring out how the federal government can be a better partner in those efforts.”

The report draws inspiration from hundreds of land trust participants at America’s Great Outdoors listening sessions around the country. “I am proud of the nation’s 1,700 land trusts for pioneering the voluntary conservation incentives and locally driven partnerships embraced in this report,” Land Trust Alliance President Rand Wentworth said. “This initiative will significantly reorient federal conservation efforts to emphasize working lands and to embrace local governments and land trusts as effective partners in conserving the places that give meaning to our lives.”

The report’s vision statement describes a future in which “Rural lands—our working farms, ranches and forests—are conserved and restored through local partnerships.” The president’s  Fiscal Year 2012 Budget Request makes a down payment on that vision by providing $200 million for the Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program and $900 million for the LWCF, some of which “will be competitively awarded to address priorities and leverage resources for urban parks and public-private conservation projects.”

In communities across America, nonprofit land trusts are working with private landowners to keep farm, ranch and forest lands in productive use, create community parks and open space, protect important fish and wildlife habitat, and conserve our scenic and historic heritage.  With the help of more than 100,000 volunteers and 2 million members, land trusts have conserved more than 37 million acres, including more than 12 million acres protected by voluntary conservation agreements with private landowners.

About the Land Trust Alliance

The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation group that works on behalf of America’s 1,700 land trusts to save the places people love by strengthening land conservation throughout America. The Alliance works to increase the pace and quality of conservation by advocating favorable tax policies, training land trusts in best practices and working to ensure the permanence of conservation in the face of continuing threats.

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Download a printable PDF (100KB).

Download 2007 Annual Report

• Background on Section 404 of the Clean Water Act,
• An overview of the different phases of a compensatory mitigation project,
• A discussion of the different roles that a land trust can play in compensatory mitigation,
• A framework for land trusts to assess their participation in a compensatory mitigation project, and
• Technical guides on site protection instruments, long-term management plans, and long–term financing mechanisms.

Download the Wetland and Stream Mitigation: A Handbook for Land Trusts as well as other resources from the ELI website.

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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