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Community Conservation

Community Conservation Spotlights: Stories That Inspire Change

Land trusts are saving land and changing lives in communities nationwide. They are reaching out and listening to people from all parts of their community to address the challenges they care about.

We have created a series of five Community Conservation Spotlight publications with short stories about the impact of these innovative land trusts. From eight to 12 pages each with lots of pictures and bullets, they are quick and easy to read. And informative and inspiring!

Check them out and let us know if you have a story to share about land trusts working with other sectors. Send your stories to communityconservation@lta.org.

There are a lot of other inspiring stories out there! Check out the success stories below and watch this video.

Jwun Gamble and other Howard School interns are taking back Lookout Mountain in Tennessee from highly invasive species, creating hiking trails for families and individuals seeking fun outside. But it’s much more than land rejuvenation and trail building that’s gaining them national attention. This work is transforming lives. The students are participating in the accredited Lookout Mountain Conservancy’s leadership program that results in 100% high school graduation rates in a part of Chattanooga where they are often lower than 50%. The program uses land conservation to heal, inspire, and connect people from all walks of life to the land and to each other.

How the Land Trust Alliance Supports Community Conservation 

We showcase groundbreaking community conservation projects, so land trusts can inform and inspire each other. We’re also making community conservation a focus in our educational and training programs — from workshops and webinars to articles and publications. We plan to start measuring the impact of community conservation as part of the National Land Trust Census. And we plan to support selected pilot projects with the potential to scale nationally. 

Community Conservation Learning Network

Join the conversation about community conservation! The Community Conservation Learning Network is a public group on The Learning Center (no log-in required). This is a place to find out about what land trusts are doing in community conservation — contribute your ideas and questions for how to engage with more people in your community to make your land trust stronger and your community more vibrant.

Resources and Tools

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Articles

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For Melissa Burnett, a fellowship led to employment with Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. / Photo courtesy of Western Pennsylvania Conservancy.

Fellowships: A promising step toward greater organizational diversity

Source: 
Saving Land magazine, Summer 2022
Author: 
Marina Schauffler

Vigyaan Ramadhin was a college senior majoring in ecology when he saw a flyer describing a conservation diversity fellowship.

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The Griffith family cut the ribbon on their new home. Heather Benham, Athens Land Trust’s executive director, is pictured second from left. / Photo courtesy of Athens Land Trust

At home on the land

Source: 
Spring 2022 Saving Land
Author: 
Madeline Bodin

Community land trusts and conservation land trusts strengthen each other through innovative strategies for owning land.

Articles

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Vámonos walkers enjoy the outdoors as part of a program sponsored by the Santa Fe Conservation Trust. / Photo courtesy of Santa Fe Conservation Trust

Blazing trails for community conservation

Source: 
Tom Springer
Author: 
Winter 2022 Saving Land

There’s a simple, but powerful way for land trusts to get closer to the people they serve: Ask them to take a walk with you.

Articles

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Children play for the first time after the ribbon cutting ceremony in the Space to Grow schoolyard at Nathan Davis Elementary School. / Photo courtesy of Space to Grow

Bringing conservation to the playground

Source: 
Winter 2022 Saving Land
Author: 
Tom Springer

There’s an expression among conservation professionals that “asphalt is always the last crop.” Once an ecosystem gets plowed under and the very topsoil scraped off and trucked away, that’s true eno

Articles

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Students learn in the gardens at Wadsworth STEM, a Space to Grow school in Chicago. Space to Grow is a partnership of Healthy Schools Campaign and Openlands land trust to transform Chicago schoolyards into vibrant spaces to play, learn and be outside, while helping neighborhoods to reduce urban flooding. / Photo by Space to Grow

Counting what matters: Stories from the 2020 National Land Trust Census

Source: 
Winter 2022 Saving Land
Author: 
Tom Springer

You may have heard the saying, “No numbers without stories and no stories without numbers.” Since 1981, that sound piece of communications advice has been a guiding principle behind the National La

Conference

Rally 2022: National Land Conservation Conference

September 15 - 17, 2022
New Orleans

The motto of New Orleans is “laissez les bon temps rouler,” meaning “let the good times roll.” And that’s exactly what we intend to do at Rally 2022 in New Orleans, Sept. 15–17! For the first time in two years, the land trust community will come together in person at Rally, and there’s no better place than New Orleans to celebrate our community’s reunion and the Land Trust Alliance’s 40th anniversary!

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