Standards Advisory Team

The revisions process was managed by a core team from the Land Trust Alliance and Land Trust Accreditation Commission and was advised by the Standards Advisory Team, a team of land trust representatives that reflects the diversity of Alliance member land trusts.

Roles

• Serve as a sounding board and provide direct input to the core team to ensure that the full range of land trust community perspectives and concerns are understood and considered
• Advise the core team in managing the community participation process
• Serve as liaisons in the community participation process, including talking with other land trusts, leading group conversations and serving as points of contact for input
• Provide comments to the core team on the initial draft revisions to the Standards
• Review and discuss the community input received and identify those points that should be reflected in the final revisions

Team Members

The core team evaluated more than 75 applications and recommended a final slate to the Alliance’s board of directors for approval. The Alliance board approved the slate on January 6, 2016. The team members are:

Jane Calvin

Jane has been the Executive Director of the Lowell Parks & Conservation Trust (LP&CT) in Massachusettssince 1995. LP&CT is a small membership-based urban land trust that also focuses on youth and adult environmental education programs, historic preservation and urban forestry. LP&CT was accredited in 2014. Jane has been active in advocating for urban land protection throughout New England, including coordinating several regional conferences. Jane is a Certified Fund Raising Executive and holds a Masters in Environmental Management from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Dan Cline

Daniel J. Cline is an attorney practicing in the areas of land conservation, nonprofit organization and real estate law. In 2014, he founded Conservancy Law PLC, a law firm located in Midland, Michigan, that focuses on the legal needs of Michigan land conservancies. He has been in the private practice of law since 1981 and has worked with many non-profit organizations, both as legal counsel and as a volunteer board member. He has been an instructor on title insurance issues at the Land Trust Alliance’s Rally and has presented on a variety of legal topics to Michigan land trusts at programs conducted by Heart of the Lakes Center for Land Conservation Policy. He is a past president and board member of The Little Forks Conservancy, Inc., an accredited land trust headquartered in Midland, Michigan, and is currently on the board of directors of Heart of the Lakes Center for Land Conservation Policy, an education and advocacy organization serving its member land trusts throughout the State of Michigan. He holds a J.D. from the University of Michigan Law School and a B.A. in economics from Yale University. He enjoys sailing, hiking, kayaking, snow shoeing and backcountry skiing.

Dan serves on the Land Trust Accreditation Commission and is the Commission’s designee to the Standards Advisory Team.

Paul Doscher

Paul is currently the board chair of the Piscataquog Land Conservancy, a regional land trust in southern New Hampshire that is preparing for accreditation. He previously was the Vice President for Land Conservation at the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests, where he worked for 27 years prior to retirement in 2014. He has been a board member of many nonprofit organizations and currently serves as a Trustee and the Secretary of the National Leadership Council of Trout Unlimited. He holds degrees in architecture and environmental science from Miami University (Ohio) and was formerly a professor of environmental science at New England College.

Paul has written for Saving Land, Trout magazine, Forest Notes and the Concord Monitor newspaper. He has presented many times on various topics at Rally, most recently co-presenting with Leslie Ratley Beach on risk management. He co-authored “”Amending or Terminating Conservation Easements: Conforming to State Charitable Trust Requirements” with the New Hampshire Attorney General's office and “Determining Stewardship Costs and Managing Dedicated Funds” for the Land Trust Alliance’s Standards and Practices Curriculum. Paul and his wife Deb live on a small conservation easement protected farm and Tree Farm where they grow fruits, vegetables and Christmas trees. In addition to fly fishing, his outdoor passions include gardening, and he has authored numerous articles and two books on organic gardening. He and his wife were voted the Organic Gardeners of the Year in 1986 by Organic Gardening magazine.

Ann Johnston

Ann has led the Crested Butte Land Trust through a period of significant growth, working to strengthen its stewardship, financial and land protection practices since 2006, which culminated in a national accreditation award in 2012. Ann was recently appointed by Colorado Governor Hickenlooper to serve on the State of Colorado Conservation Easement Oversight Commission, and also serves on the board of Peanut Mine, Inc., an 80-acre coal and silver mine reclamation project. Prior to joining the Crested Butte Land Trust, she and her chef husband owned an award winning fine dining restaurant. She has a B.A. degree in journalism from the University of Northern Colorado and is a candidate for the Master of Natural Resources program at Utah State University. She enjoys spending time in nature, whether bicycling, skiing, surfing or simply being.

Andy Loza

Andy has served since 2000 as Executive Director of the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association (PALTA), where he leads public policy efforts, develops technical guidance and implements technical assistance and education programs. His initiatives include development of PALTA’s model legal documents and the resource collection at ConservationTools.org. His work is informed by seven years as a land trust executive director and leading land use and environmental planning, conservation, economic development and trail initiatives for county government. He holds degrees from the University of Pittsburgh and Lehigh University.

Connie Manes

Based in Kent, Connecticut, Connie provides organizational assessment, strategic planning and policy development services to nonprofit conservation organizations throughout the Northeast, with a specific focus on Land Trust Standards and Practices and land trust accreditation. Since 2013 she has served as a Land Trust Alliance Circuit Rider providing direct assistance to all-volunteer land trusts. Connie is the part-time Executive Director of the Kent Land Trust, an accredited Connecticut land trust, and the manager of the Litchfield Hills Greenprint Collaborative, a regional conservation partnership of 24 land trusts in northwest Connecticut.

Connie is a steering committee member of the Connecticut Land Conservation Council, Connecticut’s statewide service organization, and chairs its training and education subcommittee. She holds a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from Pace University and a Juris Doctorate from New York University School of Law. Within her home community, Connie chairs Kent’s conservation commission and serves on the board of the Village Center for the Arts as its secretary. In her remaining free time, she can be found at the hockey rink with her three young sons, running or hiking or searching for critters in local streams.

Ginny Moore

Ginny is a licensed attorney with more than 25 years of experience in environmental law, land conservation, land planning and related policy matters. She is the sole owner of GKM Consulting LLC, a small consulting business providing a variety of services to land trusts and other conservation organizations locally and nationally. She is also the Midwest Field Representative for The Conservation Fund, focusing on conservation acquisition projects in Kansas, Oklahoma and Missouri. Before starting her own firm, Ginny served as Executive Director of the Kansas Land Trust, leading the land trust’s efforts to conserve Kansas lands of ecological, historic, scenic, agricultural and recreational significance. During her tenure at the Kansas Land Trust, the land trust protected more than 10,000 acres, and it now holds conservation easements on more than 30,000 acres of land in Kansas and Missouri. Ginny also held the position of Environmental Program Manager for Mid-America Regional Council, where she worked with citizens and communities throughout the Kansas City metropolitan area on local and regional sustainable planning efforts. Her legal experience includes practice as a private attorney in the areas of real estate and environmental law, as well as serving for five years as Assistant Regional Counsel at EPA Region VII.   

Community involvement has also been an important focus for Ginny. She has served on a number of nonprofit boards in her community, including the Blue River Watershed Association and Kansas City WildLands. She was also appointed to the City of Kansas City Missouri’s Wet Weather Community Panel, which helped the city shape its $2 billion, 25-year effort to reduce water pollution in the city’s rivers and streams through significant upgrades to the city’s sanitary and storm water sewer systems, and the use of green infrastructure to reduce storm water flow into sewer systems, streams and rivers.

George Olsen

George has been involved with the Montana Land Reliance (MLR) since its inception in 1978 and he has served on the board since 1979. George served as the secretary-treasurer of the MLR board before taking over as board president two years ago. As a Certified Public Accountant, George spent much of his professional career advising ranchers, farmers and large landowners. In 2012, he retired as a shareholder from Galusha, Higgins, & Galusha, PC.

George is a member of the Montana Society of CPAs and serves as the chair of the Legislation & Governmental Affairs Committee. He is also on the Elkhorn Federal Credit Union board of directors and the Montana Higher Education Student Assistance Corporation board of directors. George serves on the board of the Ruby Habitat Foundation, a 1,100-acre ranch dedicated to creating sustainable agriculture and preserving and enhancing the natural resourced and social and economic make up of southwest Montana. He was also the past treasurer of the United Way of Lewis and Clark County and is an active member of the Helena Kiwanis Club.

The Montana Land Reliance is one of the largest and most effective land trusts in the United States. During the period that George has served on its board, MLR has protected 900,000 acres, including 272,000 acres in the Greater Yellowstone ecosystem and 1,559 miles of trout streams.

George has a B.S. in accounting from the University of Montana and he lives in Helena, Montana with his wife, Ellen Vogelsang.

George serves on the Land Trust Alliance board and is the Alliance board designee to the Standards Advisory Team.

Emily Parish

Emily is the Vice President of Conservation for the Land Trust for Tennessee. She graduated from the University of the South (Sewanee, Tennessee) magna cum laude with an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies and Spanish and summa cum laude with a Masters in Environmental Law and Policy from Vermont Law School (South Royalton, Vermont). Hired at the land trust in 2004 as a Land Protection Assistant, Emily has completed training in conservation easement drafting, stewardship and defense and has been promoted to her current position. She successfully led the organization through the land trust accreditation process in 2008 and the accreditation renewal process in 2014. As Vice President of Conservation, Emily oversees the conservation program, including the projects of six conservation staff in two offices. She lives with her husband and two daughters in Nashville. 

Melanie Pavlas

Melanie is a native Texan with family roots in farming and ranching. She grew up in Austin and currently lives in a small town southeast of there on 17.5 acres, where she practices wildlife management. She has a Bachelor’s of Science in Environmental Biology with extensive experience in endangered species protection, regulatory compliance and land management. She started in 2010 as a board member with Pines and Prairies Land Trust (PPLT) and was hired as executive director in 2012. She is their first full-time employee of this otherwise all-volunteer land trust.

PPLT serves five counties in Central Texas, holding conservation easements on about 1,200 acres and owning approximately 1,000 acres of preserve lands. PPLT was accredited in 2014, but had just started the process when Melanie was hired. Luckily Melanie had experience working with and creating other management systems and policy manuals, so was able to apply that experience to PPLT’s accreditation application. It also served as a crash course in land trust and nonprofit management. PPLT will close on three conservation easements this year, protecting more than 600 additional acres of farmland and native habitat, all utilizing federal and local funding to purchase the easements.

Harry Pollack

Harry joined Save the Redwoods League’s staff in 2011. He brings over 30 years of experience in the fields of law and real estate transactions.Prior to joining the League, Harry Pollack was the owner of Conservation Partners, a conservation law firm dedicated to promoting the preservation of land for the public interest. In addition to his professional work, he has served on the boards of numerous nonprofit organizations. Harry is on the board of directors of the California Council of Land Trusts and also serves on its Government Relations Committee. In his spare time, he also serves on the City of Berkeley’s Planning Commission.

Rick Remington

Rick is a native of central Wisconsin, and a graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Rick spent the last 25 years working throughout the Midwest, Maine and Kentucky in land management, restoration and land protection, before joining the West Wisconsin Land Trust (WWLT) staff in 2002. As Conservation Director, Rick is currently responsible for WWLT’s conservation and fee land stewardship program and in executing new land protection projects. In his spare time, he enjoys "silent sports," gardening and spending time outdoors with his wife and daughter.

Katrina Shindledecker

Katrina is the Director of Land Conservation for the Hudson Highlands Land Trust, Inc. (HHLT) where she is responsible for overseeing the land trust’s acquisition and stewardship program. Katrina holds a Masters of Science in Environmental Policy from Bard College and a Masters of Science in Environmental Science from Pace University. Her environmental science degree focused on land and natural resource management. Her environmental policy degree focused on Hudson Valley land trusts and their adoption and implementation of Land Trust Standards and Practices for land acquisitions and stewardship. In 2007, Katrina used her knowledge of the Standards and Practices when volunteering at the Rensselaer Land Trust — working with the board of directors to draft and submit their original accreditation application (2007). She has since taken the lead on the HHLT accreditation application (2008) and its renewal application (2013). Katrina currently serves as president of the Friends of Fahnestock and Hudson Highlands State Parks board. She is also on the Friends of North Twin Lake Park Steering Committee.

Shane Wellendorf

Shane is the Conservation Coordinator with the Tall Timbers Research Station and Land Conservancy. Tall Timbers is nationally known for its prescribed fire and wildlife ecology research and has an accredited land conservancy that holds 128,527 acres of donated conservation easements and owns more than 12,000 acres of land in south Georgia and north Florida. Shane worked 11 years at Tall Timbers as a wildlife research biologist. In 2011, he transferred to the land conservancy and began working on conservation transactions and easement stewardship. His immersion into land conservation has been quite an adventure, and those experiences have reinforced in him the importance of land trust accreditation. In 2014, the land conservancy’s accredited status was renewed. Shane enjoys exploring the Red Hills region and the Gulf Coast with his wife, two daughters (ages 6 and 9) and three bird-hunting dogs.

We thank them for volunteering their time to this important process!