Southeast

Athens Land Trust, based in Athens, Georgia, has looked for a balance between land conservation and affordable housing since its founding in 1994 as a hybrid conservation and community land trust. The organization's two missions as both conservation and community land trust work together. To date, ALT has conserved over 19,000 acres and helped 49 families become first-time homeowners. They are currently working with 16 families in lease-purchase agreements and renting affordable apartments to 370 low-income individuals.

After flooding from Hurricane Matthew shuttered Princeville Elementary School in 2016, Conservation Trust began a collaboration with local leaders, universities, businesses and nonprofits to find innovative solutions that address issues related to flooding while modeling what it means to be resilient in the face of change. The collaboration constructed the Heritage Walking Trail, which establishes a walkable pathway from the school to the center of town, and installed rain gardens and other stormwater management features to address water runoff from the school building, built an outdoor classroom for teachers and students to incorporate conservation into their lesson plans, and placed a Resilience Corps NC environmental educator to provide additional capacity to the school staff.