By sharing examples of innovative and effective initiatives, as well as lessons learned and policy recommendations, a new report demonstrates that land trusts and conservancies can act quickly and flexibly at all levels, from local to global.

Today, on Feb. 22, the Land Trust Alliance turns 40 years old. I am well past that age, but I remember that people expected me to be solemn and even dejected about that milestone. I didn’t see it that way for me personally at the time, and I certainly don’t see it that way for the Alliance.

A recent article in the Baltimore Sun highlighted how neighborhood green spaces honor local heroes. Former residents that are memorialized with parks in their names include community activists, ambassadors, barrier-breaking politicians and other local luminaries. Many of them are people of color.

Title issues may feel arcane or esoteric compared to joy of finalizing a donation of land. But such due diligence can be critical for sound conservation.

We all have a role to play in addressing the inequities that can hamper our communities and lands in recovering from traumatic weather.

Think about how many webinars, virtual conferences and online workshops you’ve attended over the past two years. None of us would have had in our budgets the funds to travel to all those events in person. A whole new world of knowledge exchange has opened to us.

Bill and Anne Trabucco loved the idea of living off the grid, somewhere quiet and remote. They’re passionate about farming and were thrilled when they found a place with over 700 acres near the South Yuba River State Park in California.

In order to protect the Severn River and restore the Chesapeake Bay, land trusts and state agencies in Maryland were purchasing conservation easements on land around the river, protecting an area known as the Green Cathedral.

But then something unexpected happened.