Western Innovation Grants

Funding to support a new Communications Director, who would be responsible for development and implementation of an annual communications plan that strategically increases awareness and positive perceptions of NLT and conservation easements.

Coastside Land Trust will establish nature journaling as a foundational tool and practice in its Junior Land Stewards Program, an environmental science and land stewardship program for 4th grade students in local public schools, with the goal of having a more lasting, positive impact on students’ skills and capacity to pursue environmental studies, and to restore and care for open spaces in their community.

Funding to support a new Communications Director, who would be responsible for development and implementation of an annual communications plan that strategically increases awareness and positive perceptions of NLT and conservation easements.

This project will build a coalition of practitioners to support and amplify California agricultural conservation by sharing knowledge, addressing common challenges, advocating funding and participating in collective advocacy and education. SLT will expand our outreach to practitioners, work with partners to define the coalition’s structure, connect California land trusts to AFT’s National Agricultural Land Network and seek additional funding.

Sanctuary Forest and partners are exploring the racial inequities and social injustices that have been perpetuated by colonialism and contributed to Indigenous loss of land in the places we live and work. Sanctuary Forest recently completed a racial equity assessment and is seeking funding to continue working with the consultant to take the next steps on this learning journey and advance racial equity work within the organization.

La Plata Open Space Conservancy will develop a feasibility study, in collaboration with Montezuma Land Conservancy, that will inform the creation and implementation of an Agrarian Commons in Southwestern Colorado. The Agrarian Commons model is an innovative land-holding model committed to shaping a just, resilient, healthy food system and farm economy for the communities it serves.

Bitter Root Land Trust is partnering with the Avian Science Center, part of the top-ranked Wildlife Biology Program at the University of Montana, to provide a two-year Professional Masters of Science assistantship focused on providing Masters-level education and academic credentials, while simultaneously preparing students to be immediate professional contributors in a career in private land conservation. With this unprecedented NGO-academic partnership benefiting conservation, this innovative collaboration can create a new model for land trusts nationwide to both increase their conservation impact and train the next generation of land trust professionals.

Kachemak Heritage Land Trust will develop a richer understanding of the nuances of the Alaska land law, contemporary Native land-related issues, Native community needs, and explore the opportunity to bolster facilitation and relationship building skills to work more closely with Native peoples to achieve land protection on the Kenai Peninsula. Funding from this grant will make KHLT a more educated and enduring partner to Native Alaskans in conserving land.

Arizona Land and Water Trust will conduct an assessment of innovative transaction-based approaches to arid lands water resource protection, as well as feasibility analyses of existing tools. This process will inform internal strategic planning that will guide the next phase of the Trust’s integrated land and water protection.

California land trusts are experiencing sharp increases in cost, time, uncertainties and barriers to engaging in the mitigation process and have come together as the "Mitigation Working Group" to improve the mitigation process by developing authoritative legal resources and a detailed strategy to engage with the public agencies to ensure qualified land trusts are involved in mitigation and upgrade the easement templates with the inclusion of accreditation requirements and better terms and protections based on land trusts' extensive experience in holding and managing conservation easements. This grant supports legal assistance for the work of the MWG.

Sempervirens Fund, California's first and oldest land trust, received funding to support ongoing Diversity, Inclusion, Equity and Justice research, planning and implementation as they strive to make the public access lands they steward as well as regional CA State Parks safe, welcoming and accessible to all populations in their diverse state. By the end of this one-year initial project, with the support of consulting firm, Sempervirens Fund will have completed internal assessments and needs analysis, and will have developed a multi-year strategic plan incorporating aspirational priorities and opportunities.

The River Access Program will enable the San Joaquin River Parkway & Conservation Trust to engage new audiences by identifying and reducing barriers to river access in underserved communities. The proposed program will enhance the River Parkway Trust’s capacity to build public support for land conservation and increased public river access throughout the 22-mile San Joaquin River Parkway through community centered conservation.