Land Trust Alliance

Calling all conservation communications professionals! Elizabeth Ward, our Vice President of Communications, is inviting YOU to our Communicators' Network Luncheon at Rally: National Land Conservation Conference. This complimentary lunch offers an opportunity for land trust communicators to meet, review triumphs and challenges and spend time with a great group of people. This year, we’re excited to have FM3 Research and New Bridge Strategy join us to share the results of a recent survey that explores voters’ attitudes about private land conservation and includes recommendations for the most effective language for communicating about conservation easements. Learn more and register at https://lnkd.in/gczMwmfU

Conservation stewardship ensures perpetual protection of the conservation values of owned and protected land. Land trusts are at a critical juncture to adequately incorporate new and emerging stewardship strategies to address physical effects of changing conditions. 2023 was the hottest year on record. According to the White House, heat severity is a life-threatening issue for a third of the country. That's why they just released a national heat strategy to reduce heat-related impacts. For land trust stewardship staff and volunteers, the HeatRisk dashboard is a practical tool for evaluating daily risks. Check out the National Heat Strategy 2024-2030 in our Resource Center at https://lnkd.in/gBVENMfk

There is a new position available at the Land Trust Alliance! We're on the lookout for a Salesforce senior administrator. Collaborating closely with Alliance staff, the Salesforce Senior Administrator will be a key voice as the Alliance works to adopt new and expand existing capabilities built on the Salesforce platform. You will partner with business teams and external partners to develop, implement and maintain technical solutions that drive efficiency and improve user experience. The ideal candidate should demonstrate experience in similar roles maintaining seamless access to a community of users across multiple applications and databases. The candidate must have a proven record of positive collaboration with others, especially stakeholders, developers, business analysts, quality assurance analysts and project managers.

Land conservation is at its best and most enduring when it engages, includes and benefits all people. Everyone deserves to feel safe and that they belong — on the land, in the conservation sector and at Alliance events. The Rally team has been working to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive environment at Rally 2024. Here’s what we’re doing to become a more welcoming, inclusive and equitable organization that serves everyone in the land trust community. Register for Rally 2024 in Providence, Rhode Island, at www.alliancerally.org/.

"Recently, more than 500 organizations and companies representing a diverse set of Farm Bill stakeholders sent a letter to congressional leaders urging passage of a bipartisan Farm Bill before the end of the year. Letter signers include the Partnership for Rangeland Trusts and the Land Trust Alliance, of which our organization, the Colorado Cattlemen's Agricultural Land Trust is a member. As Congress continues to deliberate on the bill itself and how to pay for it, it is crucial that it adequately fund the Farm Bill’s voluntary conservation programs." "These programs are the largest federal funding sources for private land conservation and create significant opportunities for land trusts like ours to protect high-priority farm and ranch lands, grasslands, wetlands and forests."

CONGRATS to all of the newly accredited land trusts!!!

Last call for early bird registration for Rally 2024: The National Land Conservation Conference. In September, more than 2,000 dedicated land conservation staff, volunteers and board members will join us in Providence, Rhode Island to learn, connect and grow. Today is the last day to register and receive the early bird rate. Will we see you there?!

Research scientists at the Bartlett Tree Research Laboratories have broken new ground to treat beech leaf disease. “At times in the past seven years, while researching beech leaf disease, I’ve felt as if there would be no hope for management,” said Dr. Andrew Loyd, plant pathologist and mycologist leading Bartlett’s beech leaf disease research. “But through painstaking and tedious work, we have now been able to find two successful treatment options: a foliar application program designed for smaller trees, and a root flare injection suitable for large trees. And, although frustrating at times, it has been a very rewarding process.”

We had a blast in Denver for the Alliance/NRCS Easement Summit! For decades, land trusts have partnered with the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service to help landowners conserve America’s farmlands, ranchlands, grasslands and other vital landscapes. Through two NRCS conservation easement programs — the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program: Agricultural Land Easements (ACEP-ALE) and the Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP) — land trusts help permanently protect tens of thousands of acres each year. In 2018, the Alliance and NRCS held a first-of-its-kind summit that brought together land trust leaders and NRCS national team members to find ways to strengthen participation in the ACEP-ALE program. Now in its third year, summit provides an increased understanding of the programs, better communication between the land trust community and NRCS, and the identification of specific issues that land trusts and the agency can work together to address.

I am grateful for the opportunity to be in Denver to have meaningful discussion with NRCS staff on how to increase partnerships with Land Trusts at Summit! Thank you Land Trust Alliance and NRCS for these productive discussions! We can't do our agricultural land conservation without the opportunities NRCS provides.