Ashley Demosthenes shares what she's learned in her first year as Land Trust Alliance CEO

2025 was, for me, a year like no other. In January, the Land Trust Alliance announced my selection as its next CEO, and I officially took the reins in March. And in the ensuing nine months, I traveled across the country, meeting with land trust staff, volunteers and board members, connecting with partners in allied sectors, and representing the land trust community alongside conservation leaders and key changemakers.

In my first month alone, I was in Asheville, North Carolina, for the Southeast Conference, followed by trips to D.C., New York City, Chicago and Boston. Since then, there have been land trust events and meetings in New England, Minnesota, Indiana, Virginia, Colorado, Florida, California, Oregon, Washington and points in between. And Alliance events, like heading back to D.C. for our Advocacy Days lobbying push, and to Cleveland, Ohio, for our annual Rally: The National Land Conservation Conference this past September.

It was both exhilarating and humbling to see and hear how land trusts are stepping up in the face of a rapidly changing conservation landscape — from disruptions in federal funding to threats to conservation easements and public land. We are seeing our conservation paradigm dramatically shift, making it harder to plan and see what’s ahead. But the good news is that the Land Trust Alliance was made for moments like this, and we will continue to organize and support the land trust community as it addresses some of society’s greatest challenges, like ensuring clean water, protecting essential plant and animal habitats, and providing communities with access to fresh, local food.

Throughout my travels, I heard four key themes repeated again and again, regarding what the land trust community needs to continue protecting land in perpetuity and how the Alliance can fill those needs.

The first was that advocacy matters. The Land Trust Alliance works passionately with our members to advance federal policies and secure resources that support land trusts and accelerate the pace of voluntary private land conservation across the country. But that work is never done, and today it is essential for us to double down on cultivating and managing relationships with our government representatives at all levels — local, state and federal.

The second theme was that storytelling is powerful. The truth is that, for many people living outside of the land trust community but with an inherent interest in conservation, they may not be familiar with what a land trust is, what it does, or that there is likely one working in their own backyard. We need to be better at sharing the stories of the incredible projects land trusts are working on every day — make them come alive and demystify what it is that land trusts do.

Beyond advocacy and storytelling, the final two themes were leadership and partnerships — two things that I believe will be key to pushing the conservation movement forward. Meeting present and future challenges will require that we deepen our bench of conservation leaders, not just within land trusts, but also within sectors we need to align ourselves with: conservation attorneys, appraisers and others. And we must do more to not only foster our existing partnerships but to engage new allies to advance our shared goals.

Of course, we cannot tackle the challenges facing our planet alone. We need the support of everyone concerned about biodiversity loss, habitat loss, climate impacts, air and water pollution, and more. We can all have better lives, stronger communities and a healthier planet when we work together to protect our lands and waters. Thank you for coming together with us to support land trusts, because local actions can have a global impact when people come together to support land trusts.