The Dirt

In this series, we'll periodically check in with former and current scholars on their experiences with the Scholars for Conservation Leadership Program, as well as what's next for them in their careers. Today: Nina Jeffries, 2021 scholar and fellow at the Western Reserve Land Conservancy.

Indigenous tribes and land trusts work to build lasting collaborations.

Bitter Root Land Trust and Teton Regional Land Trust are the latest accredited Land Trust Alliance members to become Natural Resource Conservation Service certified entities.

In urban Pittsburg, California, located outside San Francisco in the East Bay, youth who have been through foster care are learning work and life skills through a new farm program of the accredited John Muir Land Trust.

More than 3.5 million acres of land in southern Indiana will be protected to form the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape.

Indigenous Hawaiian communities traditionally made hale shelters (pronounced “ha-lay”) out of local materials, but over time the practice was replaced by Western-style houses and nearly lost.

Community-centered conservation offers an opportunity to reach more people than ever before, by doing land conservation in new, different and more inclusive ways to connect with those in the diverse places that we live.

Land trusts across the country are setting new and bigger goals as part of a global movement to increase the pace of conservation and address challenges such as climate change, loss of habitat and agricultural lands, and to ensure equitable access to the land.

Native Americans once used the tree as a ceremonial meeting place. The land surrounding the tree has also been a plantation, a freedman’s village and a place where Johns Islanders, including Civil Rights activist Septima P. Clark, could rest under the shade.

In this series, we'll periodically check in with former and current scholars on their experiences with the Scholars for Conservation Leadership Program, as well as what's next for them in their careers. Today: Lillian Dinkins, 2020 scholar and former fellow at Conservation Florida.