Recent changes to federal law have significantly altered medical leave benefits for many employees. It's important that land trusts are aware of and are prepared to act on changes that apply to them and their employees.

In times of crisis, it can be a challenge simply keeping your doors open or keeping your staff employed. But there’s another critical task that can’t be neglected: keeping staff informed.

There is nothing normal about our new normal. It is full of challenges. And for some land trusts, one of the challenges, figuratively speaking, is keeping your doors open.

As the world continues to react to coronavirus, many organizations, including the Land Trust Alliance, have transitioned employees to work from home. For me, the prospect of teleworking was exciting, but after just a few days I can say: This was not the dream I thought it would be.

As editor of Saving Land, I receive a lot of communications from land trusts — stories, blogs, enewsletters, event announcements — and more. But this message from Wallkill Valley Land Trust in New Paltz, New York, came at exactly the right time with exactly the right message.

Over the past weeks, all of us in the land trust community have scrambled to respond appropriately to the coronavirus pandemic. While we all have crisis plans for our organizations, few of us anticipated the unprecedented situation like the one in which we find ourselves.

As the Land Trust Alliance weighs our response to the coronavirus crisis, one thing has remained at the forefront of all of our thinking: We must prioritize the health and wellbeing of our land trust members, our staff and their families.