Transformations: Land trusts share the Alliance "spark" that led to change

Since 1982, the Land Trust Alliance has been making a lasting, significant difference in the conservation landscape. There have been high-profile accomplishments over these past 40 years — from developing Land Trust Standards and Practices to protecting and extending the conservation easement tax incentive to launching the Terrafirma insurance program — but many of the Alliance’s most meaningful contributions take the form of behind-the-scenes support of emerging leaders and organizations nationwide.

In this quiet but catalytic role, the Alliance has been a coach and capacity-builder, developing networks, empowering change and growing conservation impact in every corner of the country. Such support ranges in size and scope, from deep investment in an organization’s leadership to simply offering a sympathetic ear or shoulder to cry on. Altogether over 40 years, these individual investments of time, energy and caring have added up to profound and often community-wide impacts.

Here, three conservation leaders share their stories of how Alliance support has made a difference within their organizations and across the land trust community. 

Glenn Lamb has watched the Alliance invest and grow conservation over his entire three-decade career as executive director of the Columbia Land Trust in Vancouver, Washington. “The Alliance creates this fabric of excellence for everyone,” Lamb says.

He has a long list of ways he and his land trust have benefitted from the support and guidance of the Alliance. Lamb participated in an early “bootcamp” version of the Alliance’s Wentworth Leadership Program and recalls a training session that pushed participants to “do something bold and ambitious.” It was then that Lamb conceived of the Columbia River Challenge, a campaign to raise unrestricted funds that leveraged $30 for every $1 donated and has since become central to the organization’s major donor fundraising.

Another example is how the Alliance helped CLT win its first grant. At an early CLT board meeting, the Alliance’s then Northwest Program Director Chris Herman encouraged the group to spend the first $15,000 they had earned on strategic planning. Some concerns were raised. “One board member said, ‘I’ll be damned if we’re going to spend our first donations on something that’s just going to sit on a shelf!’” Lamb recalls. But Herman persisted, convincing CLT to invest in developing a strategic plan.

“We ended up stapling that plan to our proposal to Meyer Memorial Trust, and they gave us our first grant, and from there, it’s just taken off,” says Lamb. Over the years, Meyer Memorial Trust and other foundations have made several multiple-year capacity-building investments in the land trust, largely on the strength of its clear vision, strong plans and effective leadership.

CLT’s transformation has been impressive. Once an all-volunteer land trust with a focus on a single county in Washington, it now effectively conserves land across 15,000 square miles in two states around the Columbia River and its many tributaries, in an area stretching from the city of The Dalles, Oregon, some 200 miles to the Pacific Ocean. Guided by a 25-year conservation agenda called “Fearless Conservation,” the organization touts science-based, community-driven stewardship of important places. CLT recently completed a once-in-a-generation conservation project, leading a diverse coalition of interests that will protect more than 100,000 acres of community forest, a small local mill and scores of jobs in the local community.

Lamb also praises the Alliance’s work on research and best practices to understand how everyone can be better at conservation. He saw that in practice with a far-sighted donor interested in making a $10 million investment in conservation.

“We had just learned from the Alliance’s ‘Next Generation Study’ that the best investment in conservation at that moment was in the capacity of mid-sized land trusts. Statistics showed that this was the most leveraged dollar,” Lamb says. “The donor could have invested in property or in capacity. So, our proposal drew on the statistics of that report, and John Gray ended up investing $10 million in capacity,” Lamb explains. The fund benefited every land trust working in Oregon, strengthening the statewide alliance (Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts) and leveraging greater conservation investments in every part of the region.

“That happened because of the Alliance’s research and big thinking,” Lamb says. Lamb has done his share of giving back as well, serving on the Alliance board and an earlier advisory council, and on the Accreditation Commission. He currently serves on the Land Trust Leadership Council and as an ad hoc trainer for the leadership program. Such “passing-it-forward” might be the best evidence of how the Alliance’s investments in land trusts create a ripple effect throughout the conservation community. 

When David Calle joined the board of Northeast Wisconsin Land Trust in 2015, it was his first experience being on the board of a conservation group. But from the beginning, he felt the power of a network. His first Rally helped him connect to other land trust board members and learn more about land conservation.

“Every board member should attend Rally. It is the most efficient and inspiring way to learn about the trends in land conservation,” says Calle. “As a board member you can sometimes get stuck in your own land trust’s issues and opportunities. But at Rally you meet so many people and get an understanding of the arc of a land trust — from new to established land trusts, from all-volunteer to fully staffed. Seeing where your own land trust sits in that arc provides so much context.”

Rally also helped Calle connect to other board members and build confidence in his own leadership. Seven years later, Calle is stepping down as a board member and former board president, but sees how much NEWLT has grown. The area’s only regional land trust — working in 12 counties to preserve the region’s lands, waters and wildlife — NEWLT has preserved more than 6,000 acres since its founding in 1996.

Accreditation helped NEWLT accelerate its pace of conservation — conserving over 1,000 acres since achieving accreditation in 2017 — and grow the organization’s endowment by 60%, something that was always important to them. NEWLT is going through the renewal process now. Calle considers accreditation “an essential ingredient for the success of the organization.”

“The process of accreditation forced the board to understand the standards and practices, why they are important, and how they come to life in our land trust,” says Calle. “Accreditation and working with the Alliance helped us make endowment a priority of our 25th anniversary campaign.”

He also credits the Alliance’s Midwest Program Director MaryKay O’Donnell with giving them guidance and assurance in pursuing accreditation. “We didn’t know if we were ready, but MaryKay knew us and knew our strengths. She gave us the confidence that we were ready to pursue accreditation. Her perspective was so valuable,” says Calle.

Calle and NEWLT Executive Director Deb Nett (also a Wentworth Leadership Program participant) have presented at Rally about one of those strengths — how land trusts can create a “dashboard” to monitor progress against their strategic plans and accelerate impact.

“It was great to return to Rally as a presenter. It was an honor to be able to share ideas on how to enhance land trust effectiveness. One of the strengths of the Alliance is creating a space where we all learn and share and help each other toward the goal of saving land,” says Calle.

Conservation can have an oversized impact in Houston, one of the largest and most diverse cities in the United States. For Bayou Land Conservancy, flood control and clean drinking water are two important priorities relevant to every person in its community.

“Houston is very flood prone, and a lot of people do not live in the safest places when it floods. Changes in our climate are only going to make things worse,” says Jill Boullion, executive director of the Houston-based Bayou Land Conservancy. The Conservancy worked with partners to protect a much-loved 45-mile accessible recreation corridor — the longest continuous urban forest greenway in the U.S. — that also protects critical drinking water resources.

Boullion considers the Alliance a critical partner on the Conservancy’s DEI journey, one of the most important new areas of its work. In February 2022, the Alliance provided funding for the four accredited land trusts in the Houston region — Bayou Land Conservancy, Houston Audubon, Galveston Bay Foundation and the Coastal Prairie Conservancy (formerly Katy Prairie Conservancy) — to engage in training, done collectively as a single cohort.

“It was important to our board to do that work with fellow land trust leaders in the area — it made it much more meaningful,” Boullion explains. Alliance staff also participated as part of the large training cohort, which the land trust staff and board members appreciated.

Boullion participated in the Alliance’s Wentworth Leadership Program, which she says was “profound” and made her “a better executive director and the Conservancy a better organization.” Recently, the organization participated in the pilot test of the Alliance’s new Gaining Ground campaign, designed to reach new audiences. She sees the Alliance’s overall impact on the Conservancy as far-reaching.

“The Alliance has really been integral in supporting my vision for the organization,” she says. “It was a surprise to me — I didn’t understand what the Alliance was when I was hired. I didn’t have that experience in any of my jobs before. Here I am six years later, and I’m still peeling back the layers of what the Alliance means for a land conservation organization, and all the different ways it provides resources and support.”

Land trusts today are vastly different than they were 40 years ago. No longer is the work about protecting a parcel of land with an easement and calling it a day. The work of 21st-century land trusts is complicated and diverse, and land trusts are meeting the moment by asking deep questions about what kind of work will make the most difference to the people of their communities.

Four decades after the Alliance emerged from a conversation among land trust leaders, the organization is more focused than ever on how to help groups succeed. The primary measure of success for the Alliance remains the impact and sustainability of the entire conservation community. And every organization benefiting from the extended investments made by the Alliance — every land trust more able to make good on its commitments.