Closing the Deal With Rural Landowners: Plain Sect Landowner Focus Group Report

Our “Closing the Deal with Rural Landowners” workshops help land trusts, conservation districts and other partners be more successful in working with landowners on voluntary conservation.

To assist land trusts and their partners in their land and water work, the Chesapeake Bay Land and Water Initiative develops and shares relevant resources on many subjects: policy, science, communications, fundraising and more. 

This Guide was created based on an assessment of the state of diversity, equity and inclusion among environmental organizations in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and provides recommendations for how organizations working on environmental issues can increase DEIJ within their organizations.

The guide focuses on two active geographies as models of where land protection and water quality are highly integrated pursuits: the Chesapeake Bay Watershed and the Great Lakes Basin.

This assessment report provides a baseline understanding of the current state of how land trusts are protecting water quality and is a catalyst for discussion, transformation and support for land trusts seeking to pioneer creative approaches to restoring and protecting Great Lakes water quality.

The 64,000-square-mile Chesapeake Bay Watershed is in the midst of an epic, unprecedented effort to reverse the impacts of pollution and restore healthier water quality to the region’s more than 100,000 rivers and streams and to the bay itself. A key factor in that effort is land.