Field Trip 1: Restoring Watersheds: River Restoration, Dam Removal and Forest Conservation
Join Columbia Land Trust for a tour of two major restoration projects in Southwest Washington. Our first stop will be Steigerwald Wildlife Refuge, where the Lower Columbia Estuary Partnership has reconnected 965 acres of Columbia River floodplain. At our second stop, Columbia Land Trust’s Wildboy Forest, we will walk a mile to Kwoneesum Dam, which will be removed in 2023 in partnership with the Cowlitz Indian Tribe. Weather permitting, guests may be able to take a quick swim in the reservoir and we’ll stop at a brewery for local beer tasting on our way back to Portland.
Price: $110
Field Trip 2: Exploring the Rose City by Bike
Portland is known for its lush parks, bikeable neighborhoods, world class cuisine and beer. On this full-day biking excursion, we’ll experience all of the above as we cruise through Portland and visit a few of our favorite parks—with stops at a food cart pod and brewery along the way. We’ll learn about the history of Portland parks, look for local wildlife, learn about native plants in our region and experience a few of Portland’s culinary delights. The ride is 18 miles with many stops. The route is predominantly flat and on low-traffic streets designated as neighborhood greenways. Your guides, in addition to their day jobs supporting land trusts, are a birder and a local guidebook author. Bicycles and helmets provided. Please note lunch costs are not included in the price of this trip and will be on-your-own at the food cart pod.
Price: $85
Field Trip 3: Columbia Gorge’s Cape Horn: From Proposed Subdivision to Public Space
The Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area is filled with many stories of paradise saved and Cape Horn is no exception. The beautiful plateau was slated for a subdivision in the 1980s and stopped by a local Portland woman and scrappy land trust. Later, other land trusts, conservation buyers, local neighbors and the U.S. Forest Service came together to create an iconic public space. Today, public and private partners are working to create accessibility options rarely found in wild spaces. Join us for four decades of acquisitions, advocacy and adventure in the stunning Columbia Gorge. Enjoy lunch at the Cape Horn Barn over the story of creation of Cape Horn Trail with stops at various properties purchased by three different land trusts, two conservation buyers and one federal agency. We’ll walk out to finished viewpoints and recreation and ecological enhancement projects in the works. Hikes/walks will be on flat but uneven surfaces and extend up to ½ mile at a time.
Price: $85
Field Trip 4: Nurturing the Next Generation of Growers
On this tour we’ll look at what resources are being provided to steward and grow the sustainability and diversity of the local agricultural industry, all while sampling tasty Portland area food and beverages. We’ll start with a visit to Black Futures Farm, where we’ll hear about their work to grow food and community, followed by an interactive dialogue with tour participants about what land conservation organizations can be doing to improve access to farmland for the Black, Indigenous and people of color community. Next, we’re off to Headwater’s Incubator Farm project for a tour with beginning farmer program participants, where we’ll also enjoy locally sourced products for lunch. We’ll then visit the adjoining Mainstem Farm property to hear from a beginning farmer about an innovative farm access transaction which secured long-term access for her, how she farms in community and see and learn more about riparian restoration efforts targeting salmonids. Then it’s off to Zenger Farm where we’ll hear about efforts to promote sustainable food systems and environmental stewardship while touring Zenger’s small urban farm. We’ll wrap our day by enjoying vegetable and fruit selections from the Oregon Culinary Breeding Network.
Price: $120
Welcome to PDX Happy Hour
The Climate Trust would love to welcome the early arriving Rally attendees to an informal happy hour on Wednesday, 9/6 at Lil Spirit (around the corner from Spirit of 77 Bar). Come have a drink on us and meet your fellow conservation enthusiasts. We look forward to connecting with you! Please RSVP via this link.
About The Climate Trust: As a pioneer and nationally-recognized leader in the carbon market, The Climate Trust develops, manages and invests in US-based carbon offset projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions. With over 20 years of technical expertise and extensive market experience, The Climate Trust develops offset projects at their critical early stages, and manages the projects until sale of offset credits. An understanding of carbon markets and underlying risks includes robust due diligence, working with mission-aligned partners and active project management.
Location: Lil Spirit 437 NE Lloyd Blvd Portland, OR 97232
Field Trip 5: Prairies, Oaks, Rivers and Wine: Conservation Partnerships and Funding in the Willamette Valley
Get your exercise for the day and journey into the heart of the Willamette Valley to learn how conservation happens in the most densely populated and fastest growing region of Oregon. With 96% of the land in private ownership and most historic habitats altered or gone, conservation is achieved through a broad partnership of government agencies, Tribes, conservation nonprofits and private landowners. Join Greenbelt Land Trust for an uphill hike in the middle of 1,000 acres of conservation land, eat lunch by the North Santiam River at a Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde project site and finish the day with a tasting flight of Willamette Valley wines at Trinity Vineyards.
Price: $100
Field Trip 6: Agriculture and Land Use in the Columbia River Gorge
This tour brings attendees to one of Oregon’s natural wonders - the Columbia River Gorge. Along the way to the Lloyd Center, Multnomah Falls and lunch at Kiyokawa Farm, we will learn about the geographic and human history of this landscape; from the Tribes that have stewarded the land for millennia to Pacific Northwest farmers who raise 84% of the nation’s fresh pears. We’ll see a pear harvest firsthand with a local pear grower and County Commission Chair while paying special attention to Oregon’s unique land use program, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year and visit an innovative in-fill housing development to learn about how the program focuses development within urban areas to prevent sprawl. This trip concludes with a wine tasting at Cathedral Ridge Winery.
Price: $115
SEM01: Building an Annual Fundraising Strategy: Plan the Work and Work the Plan
The backbone of any annual fundraising effort is entering the year with a set of clearly articulated goals, specific timelines, and income projections, and having the data and staff in place to execute. In this session, learn how to craft a robust annual operating plan that weaves together the essentials of major gifts, planned giving, fundraising appeals, conservation project needs and capital fundraising, events, grants, and more – all while centering the donor experience to ensure the donors keep coming back! Attendees will leave with an understanding of the essential building blocks that make up an annual fundraising plan, and with specific ideas to improve or implement at their organization for the upcoming year.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM02: Negotiating the Impossible
Land trusts often find themselves negotiating with a counterpart who has vastly more power and money. To prepare for this challenge, you will learn how to "negotiate the impossible" by developing power away from the negotiating table. Through a series of simulations, you will gain confidence in your negotiation skills and develop the interpersonal skills essential for successful negotiations by learning how to plan a negotiating strategy, anchor offers, create value and understand the difference between interests and positions. This seminar is drawn from a course taught by Rand Wentworth that won the Carballo Award for Excellence in Teaching at Harvard University.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM03: New Endeavors in Land Conservation: Conserve, Redevelop, Undevelop
This session focuses on land trusts as social entrepreneurs, shepherding the movement from large-scale, raw land protection to small-scale, interconnected repurposing of land and its uses. The presenters will share their new forms of conservation experiences engaging people of all backgrounds and abilities with land for outdoor recreation, agriculture and education as well as redeveloping already-built environments for new uses such as shelter, food sharing and gathering places; and undeveloping lands to support revitalized ecological and human systems, including sacred and foraging Indigenous spaces using conservation easements, cultural respect agreements, use agreements and other tools.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
CLE: CLE
SEM04: Outdoors for Everyone: A Disability Inclusion Workshop
People with disabilities live in every community and cross every sector of society, yet the conservation movement has historically ignored people with disabilities. Let’s change that now! You can ensure that all people have access to and a voice in your conservation efforts. Through “Outdoors for Everyone” you will learn how to include people with disabilities in planning, strategy, communications, partnership development and implementation of all aspects of your land trust work. Inclusion of everyone shouldn’t be a separate effort for your organization, but instead can be integrated into the fabric of your land trust or agency. Members of the Land Trust Alliance Disability Council will explore authentic engagement across all sectors of disability: sensory, physical, intellectual, Autism Spectrum Disorder and mental health conditions and mental illness. You will learn how to engage people from various disability communities, tips for board engagement and policy development, preferred language and terms and legal responsibilities, as well as opportunities for outstanding ethical reforms. We will clarify how the tenets of Universal Design and provisions of the Americans with Disabilities Act interact to help you plan accessible trails and develop programming to ensure access for everyone.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM05: Preventing Culture From Eating Strategy for Breakfast: A Simple Recipe for Organizational Health
Productive and sustainable organizations can trace their success to common and predictable sources: a clear and compelling vision, strong connections to the community, supportive organizational structures, healthy organizational culture and relevant and practical strategies. These characteristics are not acquired by chance – they are the by-product of intentional investment and focus on the things that matter. While many organizations focus on vision, structure and strategy, many find that the best-laid plans may never be realized unless there is an equal focus on elements of organizational culture.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM06: Reimagining Land Trusts as Leaders of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Justice
Western Reserve Land Conservancy is the result of 13 mergers of traditional land trusts that worked in predominantly white, affluent places in Northeast Ohio. In 2008, the organization began a journey to learn how to serve cities and densely urbanized places such as Cleveland, Ohio. This resulted in the creation of urban programs and a deep commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and justice. The mission transformation from exurban to holistic has been incredibly successful. Learn from four leaders how and why this evolution happened including lessons learned, insights gained, friction encountered and overcome and the racial diversification of their board and staff. Hear how to move from a charitable framework to a reciprocal framework of relationships in urban areas and distressed communities and how to address subconscious systemic oppression in the context of conservation funding and project selection. The seminar will focus on deep and enduring partnerships with Black-founded/Black-led organizations, particularly Rid-All Green Partnership and Black Environmental Leaders. Several case studies and real-life examples will bring to life this innovative work that engages forgotten communities that have never been served by the environmental conservation community.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM07: Relearning Our History to Better Show Up for Indigenous Peoples
For many of us, 9th grade US history is but a dim memory of patriotic founding fathers resisting British tyranny, manifest destiny guiding our forefathers’ efforts to “tame” the West and waves of immigrants creating a grand melting pot. We now know that wasn’t the whole story or even a particularly accurate story. We see time and again, those who hold power bury or brush aside painful and difficult events in American history and create systems that limit access to land and its benefits. Additionally, many narratives exclude the leadership and expertise of Indigenous Peoples throughout the history of land conservation. In this seminar presenters will unlock key moments in history that shape private land ownership and the conservation landscape we work in today, focusing on Indigenous Peoples. We will explore strategies to disrupt these systems and advance equity in our conservation practice. We will take a new look at the common land conservation tools and explore alternatives that center Indigenous leadership and access. Through stories and conversation, participants will begin to imagine what a new future for private land conservation might look like. The morning and afternoon sessions will have some content in common, but we will present it in different contexts.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
Field Trip 7: Chehalem Ridge Nature Park: Land Protection, Planning and Stewardship
Chehalem Ridge Nature Park (CNRP)is a 1200+ acre (mostly) forested protected area in the western edge of the greater Portland region. Saved from a large-lot home development and subsequently developed into a nature park in concert with the local community, CRNP weaves together themes of regional land protection, inclusive planning and park development and forward-thinking land stewardship. Metro staff will discuss site restoration, conservation goals and on-going site management, inclusive park planning and Tribal engagement to augment the visitor experience and site understanding. We will walk up to 5-6 miles with a modest elevation gain, enjoying a picnic lunch at the viewpoint prairie with multiple forest types and, weather permitting, outstanding views of the Wapato Lake Basin and Tualatin Valley.
Price: $85
Field Trip 8: Urban Land Conservation: Conserving the Greater Forest Park Ecosystem
Forest Park is a 5,200-acre forested park located within the City of Portland. This trip will give attendees an introduction to Forest Park Conservancy’s (FPC) work and approach to conservation in an urban setting and to participate in a community project that will impact Forest Park’s ecological health. The first part of the trip will take the participants to the Ancient Forest Preserve, containing one of the few old growth forests left in the entire North Tualatin Mountains. During an approximately 3-mile hike on the trail loop in the property, we will learn about FPC’s approach to land conservation and forest management based on Traditional Ecological Knowledge and Indigenous practices and its long-term vision for this property. The second part of the trip will be to a private forested property with a conservation easement granted to FPC in 2021, where we will enjoy a picnic lunch and hear about pilot collaboration process behind this transaction where FPC worked with a local soil and water conservation district.
Price: $85
Field Trip 9: Willamette Falls by Paddle: Nature, Culture and Renewal
Willamette Falls – the nation’s second largest waterfall – is rich in history and cultural significance. It has been a gathering place since time immemorial and helped power the first industries in the Pacific Northwest. By the 20th century, paper mills and dams had displaced tribal fishers and effectively blocked access to the falls. Now, a coalition of tribes, governments and a nonprofit organization is working to revive the native presence at the falls and create public access. We’ll paddle (kayak or stand-up paddle board) one mile upstream on calm water to the base of the thundering falls. Expect to see lots of wildlife while learning about the rich past and exciting future of this iconic natural place. No previous paddling experience is required. Please note lunch costs are not included in the price of this trip and will be on-your-own at the food cart pod.
Price: $115
SEM08: Flip the Script: Changing Attitudes about Fundraising
The single biggest impediment to our fundraising success is not with donors, but with ourselves. Attitude is everything and a bad attitude about fundraising can prevent people at your land trust from participating and enjoying the process. Fundraising also has a bad reputation - often well-earned - as catering to the wealthy without regard for the community. This workshop will focus on changing the culture within the organization to help how we approach fundraising to include more people in more ways and feel good about the contributions they can make. We will also explore ways to share the ownership of conservation success to the broader community, more equitably and inclusively. The conversation will lead to specific actions groups can take to more completely engage their fundraising team and others who now sit back, as well as how to engage their community more completely and authentically. Participants will be encouraged to rethink their current strategies and structures to provide more ways for more people to support the work of the land trust.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM09: Land Trusts Working Together for Indigenous Prosperity
In this session, we will examine two large-scale collaborations among land trusts in Maine and Oregon to relearn history, recenter Indigenous leadership and to return land, resources and access. On separate sides of the continent, dozens of land trusts have organized themselves into significant collaborations, pooling knowledge, money and skills to be in service to Indigenous Nations around access to land, land returns and cultural wellbeing. First Light is a collaboration between hundreds of leaders, 65 organizations and Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac communities working with the understanding that we are stronger together. Through moving at the speed of trust, these land trusts have returned a thousand acres and granted legal access to 78,000 acres, with much more to come. In Oregon, fifteen land trusts have come together to form the Oregon Land Justice Project whose mission is to partner with Indigenous Nations to reclaim and reconnect to their traditional landscapes and first foods. Both collective efforts aspire to reciprocity: to expand Indigenous access, presence and relationship to land for our collective wellbeing and to create a stronger conservation movement that includes and reflects Indigenous expertise. We will share the motivations, structures and results of this work that is redefining what land trusts do, what conservation means and promises to reform the relationship between conservation and Indigenous nations.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM10: Leadership Skills for Collaboration
Leading in the context of a collaborative effort presents special opportunities and challenges. This seminar will allow leaders active in collaborations to learn and apply specific network frameworks and approaches to their situation. Participants will leave with practical tools to energize their partnerships, examples from other collaborative efforts and a game plan to increase the impact and effectiveness of their collaborations.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM11: The Perpetuity Principle and K-12 Leadership Summit: Building Your Most Enduring Program
Learn about K-12 environmental education programs from across the country and workshop your own programming in a dedicated, collaborative environment. Since 2020, the Learning Landscapes K-12 Leadership Summit cohort has refined the Perpetuity Principle and incorporated them into land and community-based environmental education programs. These principles introduce a logical tie-in to ongoing advances regarding community-centered conservation and the concept of Perpetuity already present in land acquisition and stewardship. Land trusts from across the country have convened the last three years in order to actualize effective use of best practices, including DEIJ, program mapping, evaluation (both collective and individual), place-based learning and youth-led conversations around climate. This session will feature a concentrated version of the annual Summit, giving space for current land trust staff involved in or interested in youth environmental education to consult with similar programs after an explanation of the foundational logic and history of K-12 environmental education programming.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM12: Planning for Everything: The A to Z of Creating a Complete Conservation Plan
Join this comprehensive class on all the steps and stages necessary to create a complete conservation plan. Using examples from past conservation plans, the course will go through the step-by step process necessary to create a conservation plan and the different decisions and directions that may be taken along the way. It will cover the major steps of planning: from initial conceptualization and feasibility, to developing the lenses for understanding the issues before you, doing fact-finding and surveying, splitting and lumping community interests, doing appropriate research, refining your values, developing GIS maps, strategies and tactics for your conservation plan. Attendees will be provided with worksheets to help with developing their own plans. In-depth assistance will be on the "lenses" used to understand your regions and how to break them down and assess all aspects of your community's needs and then how to turn all aspects of that assessment into the needed working elements of a conservation plan, with a specific assessment on understanding the geographies of need and create a good GIS map-based strategy.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM13: Relearning Our History to Better Show Up for Black Communities
For many, our understanding of the history of Black communities comes from old lessons on the triangular trade system, plantations and the Civil Rights era that is overlaid with noxious cultural messages pushed out in movies, television and books that served to downplay the brutality and pervasiveness of racism. We see time and again, those who hold power bury or brush aside painful and difficult events in American history and create systems that resulted in limited access to land and its benefits, including the concentration of parks, trees and open space in predominantly affluent, white neighborhoods and a conservation industry that is predominantly white. Additionally, many narratives exclude the leadership and expertise of Black communities throughout the history of land conservation. In this seminar, presenters seek to daylight those narratives and expertise will unlocking key moments in history that shape private land ownership and the conservation landscape we work in today. We will explore strategies to disrupt these systems and advance equity in our conservation practice. We will take a new look at the common land conservation tools and explore alternatives that center the leadership and expertise of Black communities. Through stories and conversation, participants will begin to imagine what a new future for private land conservation might look like. The morning and afternoon sessions will have some content in common, but we will present it in different contexts.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM14: Sticks in the Bundle: What Are They Worth
The session will explore the concept of property rights and limitations on property rights that might be found in title reports. We will look at which sticks in the bundle of rights may have an impact on Highest and Best Use and ultimately, on market value. We will examine how these limitations might influence purchase or funding decisions. During the session participants will review several examples of exceptions and reservations from title reports and engage in a class discussion concerning how exceptions and reservations might influence Highest and Best Use and/or Market Value.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
SEM15: Water Resources Issues in Western Conservation
This seminar will focus on current and emerging water resource issues in land and water conservation, including the challenges posed by climate change, aridification and hydrological variability. Presenters will walk participants through a complex ranch conservation opportunity involving multiple water rights and competing conservation values on adjacent private and public lands on an over-appropriated stream. Finally, the seminar will explore the use of conservation easements and other legal restrictions on the use of water to restore and sustain western rivers and aquifers. The presenters are practicing attorneys in the Rocky Mountain, Intermountain and Pacific Coastal states.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Price: $150/$180
CLE: CLE
Conservationists of Color Happy Hour
Come grab a drink with Conservationists of Color! Join us for an informal happy hour and evening of connecting and building community. Come meet, network and celebrate with fellow conservationists of color and allies from across the country. All are welcome to attend. We hope to see you there! Please RSVP via this link.
Throughout Rally 2023, Conservationists of Color welcomes all BIPOC Rally attendees to visit the In Living Color room at the convention center (E147). This is a space for BIPOC conference participants who are seeking a container to connect, find deeper community and nourish our joy, rest and care.
About Conservationists of Color:
Conservationists of Color (CoC) is a national affinity group that was established to change the face of leadership of the conservation movement so that it represents the diversity and richness of the communities we serve and to increase the number of culturally responsible people of color who succeed professionally and positively impact the community. We work to fulfill this mission by leading national and regional workshops to build understanding in the conservation community around the issues and developments that affect the careers of BIPOC practitioners. More importantly, CoC provides a platform and critical space for people of color who work within the conservation movement to build community and connections that support their professional well-being and careers in a sector where oftentimes voices of BIPOCs are relegated to the margins. For additional information, please visit conservationistsofcolor.com.
Regional Receptions
Come and meet colleagues from your region for an evening of socializing and networking at the always-popular regional receptions.
Welcome Dinner
Join your friends and colleagues for dinner as we kickoff the 36th Rally with the Welcoming Dinner and the Alliance Awards. Additional Fee Required.
Price: $75
Advocacy Ambassadors’ Reception
Join the Land Trust Alliance for a reception honoring you and your fellow Advocacy Ambassadors for your commitment to support land conservation nationwide. Ambassadors is a network of land trust supporters who pledge to cultivate strong relationships with their members of Congress and advance pro-conservation policies at the federal level. Anybody who takes the Ambassador pledge is welcome to attend. This event will be held at the Spirit of 77 bar across the street from the convention center.
International Breakfast
Join colleagues advancing land conservation around the globe at the annual international breakfast at Rally. The International Land Conservation Network will showcase our work with our partners at the Center for Geospatial Solutions at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy on closing data gaps for private land conservation around the world, and highlight key themes and topics from our partners in Australia. Sign up here: https://lilp.formstack.com/forms/international_breakfast_rsvp
AFT’s National Agricultural Land Network (NALN) Member Breakfast
NALN members attending Rally are invited to a breakfast on Friday morning at the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Come meet up with other NALN members, hear about what programing we have planned, and let us know how we can help build capacity around the country to protect farm and ranch land, improve land access for a diverse next generation of producers, encourage conservation practice adoption on protected land, and plan effectively for agriculture. To learn more about NALN membership, contact Jaimee Harrison (jharrison@farmland.org) or to RSVP for breakfast, reach out to Beth Fraser (bfraser@farmland.org). Not a NALN member yet? Not a problem. You can find information about the NALN and join by visiting this link: https://farmland.org/NALN
Engaging Communities on Relationships with Land
Start your day off with an immersive/experiential format in which the audience is encouraged to participate rather than simply spectate. Like workshops they've done in the past, Queer Sol Collective invites the audience into an intimate setting where they will establish a community circle and share a collective experience (through this workshop) that introduces Indigenous methodologies that shift the intrapersonal perspective between self and the land. They will elaborate on this concept by discussing their relational approach to healing and how it creates the symbiotic relationship of healing between the individual and the environment. The plant bundling practice participants will engage in will serve to demonstrate the cyclical nature of healing with plant medicine and will open the portal of discussion that invites participants to share about this experience. Creating an emotional connection with plants and with the natural world as a whole, is the way forward for our movement. Queer Sol Collective believes in working from the ground up, literally. Our movement is designed to ignite the emotional connection between the self and the land, piecing back together the true understanding of what nature is: everything, including us. The workshop will close in the same way we started, in circle, in community, but with a deeper innerstanding of why engaging community on the land is a crucial component for land conservation efforts. This morning session will be held outside on the Convention Center Plaza.
Stewardship Breakfast
The stewardship breakfast is a great way to connect with others like you who spend their time and energy actively stewarding conservation. You get special time to share your stories about conservation management and learn from your peers. This opportunity for stewardship volunteers and staff to exchange ideas is always one of the best reasons to attend Rally! When else do you get the chance to talk with others from around the country facing the challenge of forever?
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Practical Pointers for Stewardship Staff
Urban Conservationists Breakfast
Conservationists work especially hard to protect land in urban areas. The Urban Conservationists Peer Network is a forum in which land trusts can share ideas, build networks and grow skills that are unique to their urban service areas. Current and prospective participants in this network are invited to gather and share thoughts for how land trusts can serve the “conservation concerned,” who disproportionately live in urban areas.
REPI Breakfast
Heard about REPI and how land trusts can partner with military installations on conservation, but don't know where to start? If so, join REPI and Alliance staff for breakfast and discussion on how to we can partner to achieve great things for conservation.
Community at the Center
Trust for Public Land was founded 50 years ago on the conviction that all people need access to nature close to home. Community centered design was rooted in our work from the very start. Today, a new generation of conservation professionals is infusing the organization with energy and diversity, while using parks and public land to create healthier, stronger communities. They’ll share stories and insights; you bring your ideas and questions around the future of community centered conservation! Grab some refreshments from the morning coffee break and hear from our Rally sponsors.
Featuring: Dr. Jocelyn Imani (TPL), Kamuela Kaapana (TPL), Brenda Rubio (TPL), and Jonathan Fajardo (Compton Community Garden)
Finding Success with Geospatial Technology
The Esri non-profit program puts geospatial technology into the hands of more than 6000 organizations globally. Come learn about how to apply geospatial technology to your work to build compelling stories to help secure funding. Learn about how to increase the efficiency of how your organization, large or small, uses information to make better decisions. Hear stories from all over the world about how other organizations are using spatial thinking to have a more effective approach to conservation and land preservation globally.
Carbon FAQ with Forest Carbon Works
Join Forest Carbon Works (FCW) for a conversation addressing some of the most Frequently Asked Questions about our Improved Forest Management (IFM) carbon program, FCW Conserve, with an opportunity to ask your own questions. We will be providing coffee and breakfast! At Forest Carbon Works, our Conserve IFM Program allows landowners to be both recognized and paid for their conservation efforts. Available nationwide, our program streamlines carbon market access, securing legacies and providing diversified revenue sources for our members. In this session we will tackle all your burning questions about our carbon program, such as:
- What makes my forest eligible for enrollment in a carbon program?
- How will your program benefit my Land Trust?
- Does having an existing conservation easement disqualify me from enrolling with Forest Carbon Works?
- How will timber harvesting impact my carbon project?
Friday Plenary
Private land conservation has and can play a larger role in more inclusive land conservation outcomes. Join us as a panel of experienced practitioners offer their perspectives on connecting people to land and meeting community needs while centering community leadership. Learn how land trusts, as allies, can support innovative strategies that increase the impact of their land conservation work and its benefits. We will also celebrate the impact of Accredited land trusts.
A01: Launching New England Climate Smart Forest Partnership Project
Through the USDA Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities Program, the New England Forestry Foundation (NEFF) is anchoring a nationally relevant pilot program in New England to demonstrate how well-managed forests and sustainably harvested wood products can address climate change while supporting biodiversity and benefiting both rural and urban stakeholders. With support from this program, small landowners and land trusts will be empowered to help implement this vision,showcasing how the values of long-term land conservation can work in concert with climate-smart forest management on private forest lands. This will include refining the definition of “climate-smart” forest management, implementing climate-smart practices via foresters and loggers and generating measurable climate benefits in the form of increased carbon sequestration and storage. A central aspect of this project is a collaboration with the Family Forest Carbon Program (a project of the American Forest Foundation and the Nature Conservancy) to inform and enroll smaller forest landowners. In addition, NEFF will conduct several landowner outreach pilot efforts in strategic geographies throughout New England that will focus on reaching underserved landowners in local wood baskets and offer training to the loggers and foresters that landowners (including land trusts) depend on to implement sound forest management. This workshop will frame how regional partnerships are key to implementing the landscape-scale goals of this project, including the value of strong engagement from land trusts.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A02: Smart Solar: Advancing Best Practices for Clean Energy Planning and Resource Protection
In a presentation and interactive discussion format, this session will feature three experts in solar project planning, energy policy and stakeholder engagement to discuss that latest in renewable energy site mapping, best practices for project co-benefits (including stormwater management) and strategies to make solar more compatible with natural and working lands protection. With this information, land trusts can confidently engage in local and project-level discussions leading to more beneficial outcomes, such as solar projects that protect water quality, enhance biodiversity and integrate regenerative soil health practices.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A03: Emerging Carbon Offset Opportunities to Protect Forests
Trees provide many essential benefits to human communities, wildlife and the environment. In recent years, their capacity to store carbon has been gaining global attention as one of the mechanisms to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the prohibitively high costs of project development, monitoring, reporting and verification have previously prevented land trusts from participating in the voluntary carbon market. City Forest Credits (CFC), a national nonprofit carbon registry, is offering a solution by exclusively registering and issuing credits from metropolitan-associated forest projects. CFC’s carbon crediting process offers a systems and accountability approach that ensures high-quality urban forest projects and long-term revenue for land trusts. CFC provides a way for land trusts, local governments and other entities that manage urban forests to finance conservation projects that contribute to the health and well-being of people and the environment. Western Reserve Land Conservancy (WRLC) has completed four projects protecting over 344 acres of forests of Northeast Ohio yielding over 44,475 credits and directly benefit communities in its service area. This synergistic work aligns with WRLC’s mission to protect essential natural assets for thriving and prosperous communities and opens an additional funding stream to support its local conservation and restoration work. In this session, participants will learn about the emerging opportunities for land trusts to generate significant financial resources from forest preservation carbon projects on lands over 15 acres that are in or near metropolitan areas.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A04: Conservation Easements: Amendments and Discretionary Approvals
This workshop will cover the difference between discretionary approval and amendment, and explain when and how to design and execute these tools. Included will be IRS views on amendment, current caselaw on amending conservation easements, Land Trust Alliance Risk Management Drafting Pointers, rules for a good amendment, discussion of who must sign, due diligence necessary for every amendment and state law differences.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
A05: Conservation Storytelling through Drone Imagery
The scale of the work that land trusts do is often difficult to see from the ground. Drones are dynamic, accessible tools that allow conservation professionals to create powerful, landscape-level imagery that would have required chartering an aircraft only a few years ago. Being able to capture and share an elevated perspective on the places that we all work so hard to protect can be eye-opening, incredibly useful, and easier than ever. In this session, we will showcase the many ways that we’ve used drone imagery to enhance our conservation storytelling and facilitate a conversation around ways attendees can do the same. We’ll introduce attendees to modern consumer drone technology and cover the basic skillsets needed for flying, practical considerations, anticipated costs and how to get licensed. Flying a drone for the first time can be intimidating, so at the end of the session, we’ll head outside for a short drone flight demonstration (weather and time permitting). In our experience, this is the best way to get people comfortable with the idea of flying a drone themselves. We will plan to capture a session photo from the air!
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A06: From Messaging to Storytelling: Building a Case for Natural Climate Solutions
With the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, there is more support than ever for implementing Natural Climate Solutions on both public and private lands. Land trusts can play a key role in helping to implement these solutions. This session will share message guidance on how to effectively communicate the benefits of Natural Climate Solutions, illustrate how that messaging can be integrated into compelling content, and spotlight other resources that can help improve understanding about the potential of these solutions among landowners and decision-makers. During this session, U.S. Nature4Climate staff will share the findings of recent polling conducted by USN4C designed to help our coalition members (including the Land Trust Alliance) communicate the benefits and opportunities provided by Natural Climate Solutions - spotlighting how different constituencies respond to different messaging approaches. We will share resources that USN4C has developed, including our Decision-Makers Guide to Natural Climate Solutions and several campaigns designed to help communicate this messaging and help navigate the implementation of these strategies. Finally, USN4C collaborators will discuss how they integrate this guidance into their own communications.
HENRY - USN4C Rally Presentation
GALLEGOS - USN4C 9_8_23 presentation
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A07: Farms in Transition: Farmland Protection and New Pathways to Farm Ownership
This session will showcase new conservation tools being deployed to address land access, which presents the greatest challenge for diverse, next generation farmers. The Working Farms Fund utilizes a replicable and scalable first-of-its-kind Buy-Support-Protect-Sell model, providing land access and a path to land ownership for small to mid-size farms while increasing the supply of local food and bolstering farmer support resources. In this interactive session, a cross-cutting panel that includes farmers and The Conservation Fund’s Working Farms Fund program staff will engage the audience in discussion on the realities of transitioning farms to the next generation in the Midwest and Southeast through the Buy-Support-Protect-Sell model, expanding the program to meet national demand for farmland protection, providing meaningful farmer support resources including funding for climate-smart practices and leveraging federal resources for conservation easements to permanently protect farmland.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A08: Gravel and Surface Minerals: State of the Law and Working Lands Easements
Whether and how to allow gravel or other surface mineral extraction on conservation easement properties has long been a difficult challenge for easement drafting, particularly on working lands easements where a small on-ranch gravel source is considered necessary for agricultural and general land management purposes. Federal tax law prohibits “surface mining” of any kind for tax-deductible conservation easements, but whether this overarching statement is broad enough to include limited, localized, small non-commercial gravel extraction has been the source of significant debate in the land trust world. This session will review the available legal authorities, including statutory and regulatory provisions from the conservation easement context; case law on tax-deductible conservation easements from Great Northern Nekoosa through the recent Cattail Holdings, LLC, the varying approaches to minerals and surface interests taken under state laws, the interplay between surface mining and conservation purposes, surface mining as a pre-existing use and the recent IRS Chief Counsel memorandum. The Land Trust Alliance’s’s Practical Pointer on this issue will be explored in depth. With this background established, the session will introduce the broader landscape of land trust practices in this area, both historic and in response to current developments, and help land trust staff and their attorneys consider paths forward in the face of uncertainty.
Rally2023_A08_IRS Reg 1.170A14.e through g
Rally2023_A08_Practical Pointer.reserved-rights-of-surface-mining-methods-w-spectrum
Rally2023_A08_Session Outline [Surface Minerals][Dietrich and Bourguignon]
Rally2023_A08_North Donald LA Property LLC v Commissioner of Internal Revenue
Rally2023_A08_IRC Section 170.h
Rally2023_A08_IRS Chief Counsel Memo No 202236010
Rally2023_A08_Cattail Holdings LLC v Commissioner R
ally2023_A08_Gravel and Surface Minerals
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
A09: Real Estate Fundamentals: A Primer for New Land Trust Staff and Board Members
Land conservation projects are, at their core, sophisticated real estate transactions. This workshop will acquaint participants with basic real estate concepts, legal elements of real estate transactions and outline the acquisition process from property identification through title searches and related due diligence to closing. Emphasis will be placed on basic legal terminology, possible pitfalls, and practical advice. The topics will include: types of ownership and how interests in property can be held by different people; title searches, title insurance and problems; liens and encumbrances; surveys and legal descriptions; due diligence and liability; letters of intent, purchase contracts, options and rights of first refusal; basic information on deeds, conservation easements and other documents; and closing and recording.
Rally2023_A09_Real Estate Fundamentals - FINAL OUTLINE FOR PRESENTATION
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
A10: Exhibit A: Best Practices for Preparing Useful, Accurate and Cost-effective Maps
This session will explore how different land trusts ensure that mapping programs and title/survey work support their conservation programs. The panelists will discuss different mapping needs during due diligence, acquisition, disposition and stewardship. We’ll invite audience participation as we explore ways to “right-size” mapping and surveying needs, and develop best practices based on the real world experiences of the panel and the audience. Topics will include use of surveyors, development of GIS programs, different maps for different types of projects, addressing errors, inconsistencies and uncertainties, needed levels of specificity and storing information for the long term.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A11: Healthy People, Healthy Planet: Advancing Health Equity with Community
How can land trusts and nature organizations be a part of public health solutions? Research documenting the health benefits of nature continues to grow, yet many communities still face barriers to accessing nature and a clean environment due to historic and present systemic injustices. Join this workshop to explore how you can help improve health equity in your community. Dive into some of the latest national research on the health benefits of nature since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, tools for implementing a “Health, Equity and Nature Report” in your community and strategies and ideas for implementing community-centered solutions. Explore how these strategies worked (and what didn’t work!) in the Chicago region. You’ll learn why interdisciplinary partnerships are vital to success, including public health institutions, environmental justice organizers, artists and funders and how to ensure community voices guide the process.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A12: Youth Climate Protectors: Designing Collaborative Engagement Programs
This year, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy teamed up with Unete Center for Farmworker Advocacy and Southern Oregon Climate Action Now to develop and pilot the “Youth Climate Protectors” program. This program, fully funded by the Oregon Health Authority, introduced local Latino/a/x high school students to the science of climate change, then took them out to a number of public and private protected lands where they learned about the human/land relationship, explored land-based career pathways and collaborated on climate change-related community action projects. In this session, we will discuss the process of developing the program; the enthusiastic funding and partnering responses we enjoyed; the crucial role of cross-sector collaboration in bringing the program to fruition; the lessons we learned; and the future of the program. We will also share reflections and insights from participants about their experience. We will finish the session with activities that will help participants articulate their “why” for engaging youth in their organization’s work, and will help participants think creatively about potential collaborators beyond typical land trust networks.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A13: RCPP Easements: Farm Bill Opportunities and Beyond
NRCS staff will provide an update on RCPP Easements. The Inflation Reduction Act will provide enhanced opportunities for easement holding entities and we will discuss those, too. Additionally, agency representatives will discuss changes to RCPP, specifically those that are easement-related.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A14: Inflation Reduction Act possibilities with the Forest Legacy Program
We are excited to share special funding opportunities created by the Inflation Reduction Act to increase the diverse projects completed with the Forest Legacy Program.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A15: Building Capacity and Resilience through Succession Planning
Transitions will happen. The founder steps down, your stewardship manager moves out west, your development director is headhunted and board officers reach their term limits. Succession planning gives you a framework to manage through these transitions, whether in the form of proactive preparation for an emergency, a planned transition or the development of leadership skills and core competencies throughout your organization. To get where you are going you need to know your destination, true, but you also need to know how to get there. When applied and integrated into everyday management and operations, succession planning guides investment in your staff increasing their commitment, retention and satisfaction, it builds board cohesion, skills and confidence, and ensures that your next leadership transition is an opportunity to look forward and to grow. In this workshop we will provide participants with tools to identify leadership skills and core competencies needed on the staff team and the board team. We will share best practices for developing and implementing your plan, identify the roles of staff, board and leadership, and how to manage transitions when they do occur . You will walk away withconcrete steps that you can take to create a more sustainable future for your land trust, with committed people who are in it for the long term.
A15_ Succession Planning (Attendee) LTA Rally 2023 Portland OR
A15_ Succession Planning Links, LTA Rally, Sep 2023 Portland, OR
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A16: Restricted/Conditional/Cost Reimbursement Based Funding: Threading the Accounting and Reporting Maze
While this session won’t answer the underlying question of why accountants make everything so hard, it will help you understand the true character of government and foundation grants your land trust receives and prevent surprising audit adjustments. Learn how to analyze each grant you receive to determine how to record it and prepare for the impact it will have on your net income and cash flow. This session is designed for both users and preparers of financial info (executive directors, development directors, fiscal directors, etc. ) Discussion topics will include: distinguishing restrictions from conditions; accounting for and reporting on conditional awards; how to make the impact of receiving and using restricted grants clear on your financial reports; dealing with the impact of cost reimbursement agreements on your cash position and why waiting for the auditor to sort it all out may be a really bad idea.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A17: Fundraising Planning: A 101 Approach
Fundraising involves both heart and mind. While cultivating relationships matters most, effective fundraisers expand their impact and raise more money by thinking strategically about all fundraising activities. In this workshop, we'll learn how to build a strategic fundraising program for your land trust. We’ll cover membership systems, appeal letters, Donor Circles, major gift development, capital campaigns, events, donor strategies, planned giving and more to give you the tactics you need to better engage with people and raise more money — all through a 101 lens. This workshop is for people who want a very basic overview of how to think about fundraising and how to build a program from scratch.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A18: Learn the Moves to Manage: A Systematic Approach to Donor Cultivation
In this session, we’ll strip “moves management” down to the bare essentials, workshop systems for qualifying and analyzing donors and review strategies and habits for donor cultivation and stewardship. We’ll review the basic theory behind moves management, establish templates for identifying and evaluating top prospects and strategize organization techniques and programs for increasing donor giving and enhancing a culture of philanthropy. Whether you're new to major gifts or a seasoned professional, tracking donor relationships and increasing giving is impossible without a good system. Everyone talks about “moves management” or the “donor pipeline,” but what does that look like in practice? How do you get your “mid-level” donors to become major donors, and your major donors to become leadership donors? Fundraising is all about relationships, and moves management is a system for assessing, strategizing and growing those relationships in a way that assures a donor feels valued.
Toolkit A - Sample Donor Strategy Plan
Toolkit B - Query and Export Data Suggestions
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A19: Connecting with Community through a Camping Program
In this session, the Hawai'i Land Trust will share its experience in running organized camping programs at two of its preserves for more than ten years and how it utilizes the camping opportunities to serve the local community and connect those individuals to the stewardship of the land. Hawai'i Land Trust staff will also review their software systems and processes for managing the camping program reservation system.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A20: A Facilitated Discussion on Establishing Land Protection Best Practice Standards for Watershed Protection
The worlds of land protection and watershed management often function in parallel despite their many areas of overlap. This session will explore three key questions that can facilitate development of best practices for natural lands protection for water quality and potentially unlock the millions of dollars of available water quality funding for land protection : (1) How can land protection help achieve watershed management goals?, (2) Which lands within a watershed are most important for protecting water quality?, and (3) How do you quantify the water quality outcomes of land protection? The Land Trust Alliance, US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Open Space Institute (OSI) have worked to integrate land protection within watershed-based initiatives, for example through LTA’s Chesapeake Land and Water Initiative, EPA’s Healthy Watersheds Program, and OSI’s work through the Delaware River Watershed Initiative. Through this work, LTA, EPA and OSI have identified the need for compiling best practice standards for integrating land protection in watershed-based initiatives aimed at achieving water quality goals. Presenters will briefly highlight insights from research and case studies, which will serve as discussion prompts for participants to share their experiences. We anticipate this session serving as a critical starting point for land trusts and partners to provide grounded, practical input to inform future work to establish best practice standards for integrating land protection in water quality work. The session will provide time for participants to share their experience and ideas for advancing best practices related to the questions above. Note: this session will primarily focus on forest protection and will not address landscapes with severe water shortages/drought.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
A21: 30×30 Geospatial Analysis
Learn about Midcoast Conservancy's 30x30 Geospatial Analysis to identify the lands within our service area that are of high priority for protection based on habitat value, connectivity potential and parcel size. Based on the tenets of conservation biology, this analysis, that uses geospatial analysis and least cost path analysis, enables Midcoast Conservancy staff to take a "proactive" approach to land protection as opposed to the traditional "reactive" approach of waiting for opportunities to present themselves. Based on our results for the parameters outlined above, we can identify and score parcels for a variety of attributes: size, quality and connectivity. With this data, we can now overlay parcel maps and actively approach landowners in these areas to develop to educate them and offer conservation options to them that suit their situation. We will also be using this to educate the municipalities in our service areas to inform their conservation strategies as they develop and update their comprehensive plans for the communities. Lastly, most funders that are looking to support land conservation want to see well thought out strategies before providing funds to support acquisition. Our 30x30 Geospatial Analysis is the science-based tool that will provide that information. We also designed our methodology so that it is easily replicable and can be shared with land trusts around Maine and across the USWe hope that others will adopt this method to increase the effectiveness of their land protection and 30x30 efforts.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Land Needs Leaders: Finding and Being the Right Person at the Right Time
Want ideas about how best to present yourself when applying for land trust jobs? Or is your land trust curious about best practices when conducting a search? Our panel members, collectively, have conducted hundreds of searches, read hundred of thousands of applications, and conducted thousands of hours of interviews. Come bring your lunch and join us for an interactive conversation with search professionals and land trust leaders about how to best present yourself when applying for jobs. Lots of time for Q&A. All attendees are welcome and the session will be relevant to board members and staff alike. Join us in Room C120-122 for a conversation with search professionals and land trust leaders about how to best present yourself when applying for jobs. Full info and flow of the session can be accessed here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GMWdJMzHeY7JSpxmYWVjDUf3Smcdv7X7SEOoG5M5kmE/edit?usp=sharing
Landscape Demo: Software for Land Trusts
Join us for a live demonstration of Landscape land conservation software, where we will complete an acquisition project, do a live site visit, print an annual monitoring report, and export LTA Accreditation data in just 20 minutes! See how more than 200 organizations are using Landscape to make their work more organized and efficient. Learn more at LandConservationSoftware.com/rally
B01: Working Forests and Carbon Markets: Can We Have Our Cake and Eat It, Too?
Carbon markets offer emerging possibilities to conserve working forestlands, reduce atmospheric carbon and provide financing for natural climate solutions. However, as demand increases for these projects, so do questions around their efficacy in fighting climate change, as well as concerns around whether they will be used to reduce overall timber volume and create unintended consequences for rural communities and sustainable building material supply chains. The Washington Department of Natural Resources (DNR) knows firsthand both the excitement and concerns that come up as more entities, including DNR itself, dive into this world. Washington’s DNR has launched a first-of-its-kind carbon project, released a “Carbon Playbook” outlining the many ways in which carbon projects could help the agency reach its conservation and management goals and advocated for agency request legislation for DNR to have clear authority to directly enter into carbon markets itself. Over the course of this workshop, representatives from the agency, including the statewide elected Commissioner of Public Lands, will share information about each of these three elements, including the concerns we heard along the way from stakeholders from every end of the spectrum. Then, we’ll turn it over to the participants: what strategies would you put in place to operationalize carbon projects on DNR lands that meet multiple objectives—conserve working forestland, reduce atmospheric carbon and seek financing for natural climate solutions and other critical natural resource management?
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B02: A Collaborative Approach to Salt Marsh Resiliency in Downeast Maine
Healthy tidal marshes provide valuable social and ecological benefits, including improved water quality, protection from storm surge, aesthetic value and critical habitat for both rare and commercially important species. Traditional approaches to tidal marsh conservation have focused significantly on the protection of the marsh features themselves, and management activities that often focused on a single species/taxa. The current era of rapid climate changes demands a more integrative approach to marsh conservation that considers the impacts of sea level rise, protection of upland buffers to allow for marsh migration, and restoration to correct for human impacts (ie. salt hay farming). In Downeast Maine, several land trusts are using this integrative approach and are regionally leading salt marsh conservation in a uniquely collaborative way. Using examples from active salt marsh restoration projects, each at a different stage in the process, we will share the iterative conservation planning process we used to assess threats to tidal marshes in the region and identify strategies for resiliency. We will discuss the importance of gaining community support, funding and shared positions, and effective two-way communication with private landowners, local communities, researchers and state and federal agencies. The majority of salt marshes in eastern Maine are privately owned and of little real estate market value, which poses a challenge for conducting restoration projects and incentivizing landowners to participate. We will discuss solutions we have identified, how our approach has shifted over time and share lessons learned from the collaborative approach we are using to conserve and restore salt marshes in the region.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B03: Rethinking Solar Developments for Conservation: Agrivoltaics and Dual-Use Solar
To keep the family farm, Jack's Solar Garden was built in 2020 in Boulder County, Colorado. It is a 1.2 MW (4 acre) solar array elevated higher than normal to accommodate people, trucks, tractors, animals and vegetation. It is now a national model for integrating agricultural practices within a solar array including research into ecosystem services and grassland ecology conducted by local universities. This session details how and why this solar array was built, the finances around it, the research findings on how solar panels reduce irrigation needs for vegetables and grasses, and showcases the possibilities of integrating solar on working and conservation easement lands. Attendees will takeaway a new appreciation for how solar arrays can be built for the betterment of lands instead of at its detriment.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B04: Trust the Technology: Stewarding with Success
With a wide range of resources available, there are multiple ways your land trust can go digital! Join Maryland Environmental Trust, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and Lower Shore Land Trust as they present on their organizations' experiences with various technologies in stewarding the diverse landscapes of Maryland. Attendees will learn about ESRI's ArcGIS Mobile Application, LENS satellite imagery, drones, and much more!
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B05: Let’s Get Engaged! Elevating Diverse Stories Online and IRL
Are you looking to make your content shine? With the right technique and a little bit of magic, your storytelling efforts can stand out and capture your audience's attention. And with some intentionality, we can build community and a sense of belonging online and in person. We’ll share highlights from POST’s journey, experiments, successes (and failures) so you don’t have to. From social media, to blogs, to events, we’ve looked for quick and easy wins to increase engagement and elevate diverse stories and voices. This workshop will be interactive, come prepared to chat with your peers tackling this important work!
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B06: Sustaining Climate Resiliency by Keeping Working Lands Working
Irrigated lands comprise over 60 percent of wetland habitat in the snowpack-driven systems of the Intermountain West. The greatest threat to wetlands in this region—and the migratory bird networks they support—is climate change and the associated landscape drying that leads to wetland loss. This effect has reduced the availability of wetland habitats across large portions of the West by nearly 50 percent over the past two decades. Conserving flood irrigated wet meadows contributes to system-wide resiliency, providing key habitat for migratory birds, sustaining floodplain function, recharging aquifers and supporting agricultural communities. The Intermountain West Joint Venture (IWJV) established Water 4 to conserve working wet meadows and water in ways that matter to people. The IWJV has developed spatial planning tools that track wetland dynamics and surface water trends (wetland habitat in space and time) by month, over 35+ years, across the 11 states of the Intermountain West. This powerful science enables strategic implementation of partner-driven projects benefitting people, wildlife, and the landscape and is a critical tool for evaluating landscape resilience in the face of a drying climate. IWJV has partnered with the Partnership of Rangeland Trusts (PORT) and its member organizations and other land trusts and conservation organizations across the intermountain west to deliver impactful and meaningful conservation of wetland habitat. This session is intended to share a case study on how science-driven partnerships can lead to greater conservation and link to available funding for conservation easements.
Rally2023_B06_IWJV_9927_Intermountain-Insights_Irrigation_v4
Rally2023_B06_IWJV_IntermountainInsights_FlywayResiliency_Final
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B07: Stewardship Grants: Adapting to a Shifting Climate on Working Lands
As drought conditions worsen across the west and weather patterns become less predictable, we ask ourselves as a land trust: What tools can we provide to help our community best steward their working lands for a more variable future? In this session, we will explore the evolution of one small grants program and the launch of an emergency initiative that gained more permanence as it evolved. First, we will provide historical context of how Marin Agricultural Land Trust has worked to protect and steward the working lands of Marin county. We will explain the impacts of the Stewardship Assistance Program which has been operating since 2002. Second, this session will highlight how staff responded to emergency drought conditions by developing a strategic initiative to address water insecurities and stewardship objectives. We will focus on how imperative it was for different teams at the organization to come together in order to achieve a common goal. Fundraising, communications and the conservation teams worked together to create an initiative focused on drought resilience. We will discuss program guidelines, scoring criteria and highlight a few projects. We will round out the session by discussing next steps for these small grants programs. The goal remains to increase agricultural utility, build in climate resilience and protect valuable ecological values while remaining nimble and adaptable in such unpredictable times,
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B08: Legal Tools for Land Back: Case Studies from Oregon and Washington
Landowners and land trusts in Oregon and Washington are working with Tribes to expand Indigenous access and ownership of their ancestral lands, and to protect cultural values and resources. This workshop will explore legal tools developed and used by land trusts, landowners and Tribes to provide Tribal access to important lands, facilitate the return of land to Tribal ownership and protect cultural values in conservation easements (held by both Tribes and land trusts if appropriate). Using real world examples, we will review land trust organizational documents such as articles and bylaws to ensure they include protection of cultural values. We will discuss potential approaches to drafting conservation easements that protect and provide Tribal access to cultural resources. We will share examples of land transfers and ongoing co-management frameworks and address unique questions that can arise regarding Tribal ownership of land.
Rally2023_B08_1. Memo - Article & Bylaw Changes
Rally2023_B08_3. Cultural Value Conservation Easement Examples
Rally2023_B08_4. Wallowa Land Trust Case Study
Rally2023_B08_5. FirstLight_LegalFAQ (1)
Rally2023_B08_6a. Deed Restriction Language R
ally2023_B08_6b. Deed Restriction Language for WLT transfer to NPT
Rally2023_B08_7a. 30800 Endorsement 48
Rally2023_B08_7b. 30800 Waiver
Rally2023_B08_8. Memo - Tax Deductibility & Tribal Easements
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
B09: Federal Tax Issues – Latest and Greatest 2023
Cases are coming in red hot from the courts and IRS! We’ll bring everyone up to speed on the latest developments in tax-related case law, regulations and actions to curtail conservation easement syndicated deals.
LTARally2023FederalTaxLawIssuesandUpdates (2023-09-07) FINAL (1) (1) (1)corrected
Rally2023_B09_ArticleDowntheRabbitHolePartOne ELR FINAL Publication II
Rally2023_B09_ArticleDowntheRabbitHolePartTwo ELR FINAL Publication II
Rally2023_B09_baseline-documentation-reports.pdf
Rally2023_B09_Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act updated 7-25-23
Rally2023_B09_FederalTaxIssuesandUpdates OutlineFinalforWorkshop
Rally2023_B09_form-8283-and-appraisal-review.pdf
Rally2023_B09_minimal-forestry-practical-pointer-final-4-2-20.pdf
Rally2023_B09_updated-building-rights-pointers-revised-10-27-20-final.pdf
Rally2023_B09_updated-land-trust-alliance-safe-harbor-provisions-faq
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
B10: Using Rural Development as a Conservation Tool for Land Trusts
Rural development helps provide social and economic opportunities to residents in rural communities to improve quality of life and livability. But how can you use rural development as a tool to support rural communities and advance conservation opportunity? In this workshop, we will learn what rural development is, how it can be tied to recreation and conservation opportunity and hear about multiple case studies from Western Montana and Idaho. We will then have an interactive session with participants to explore how this work could be used as a tool for land trusts beyond the West.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B11: A Regional Strategy for Naturally Accessible Trail Experiences
Preserves seeking to be more inclusive may struggle to help those with limited mobility (e.g., those using wheelchairs or canes, those with conditions impacting coordination or balance, or even those just pushing a stroller) connect with nature. While the shared use paths favored by many designers can guarantee universal access, these can be very expensive and have significant impacts. Too often, organizations are limited to building a short path around a field. We draw from real-world experience as users facing mobility challenges and as program leaders seeking to improve access. We describe the kinds of natural paths that users facing different mobility challenges can potentially learn to enjoy, and consider the other trail features and amenities that create memorable experiences. We also consider the range of amenities at the trailhead to ensure the comfort of users, and share emerging ideas for the kinds of information users need to plan their outing. Developing a plan to identify potential trails can be an opportunity to recruit accessibility ambassadors who can provide specific feedback, as part of other efforts related to accessibility. Conducting an inventory of candidate trails across a county or region can help to focus funding to demonstrating feasibility. These efforts may ultimately depend on building relationships with organizations serving individuals with various mobility challenges. We describe this process through our own efforts to conduct accessibility reviews of trails, take specific action steps to improve specific trails and begin to develop regional goals that help direct the resources needed.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B12: Integrating Multi-Scale Climate Objectives into a Community-Centered Conservation Vision for 30×30
The Trust for Public Land has just completed an 18-month community-centered effort to integrate California’s Pathways to 30x30, Regional Conservation Investment Strategies, and other governmental climate and conservation plans in California’s Central Coast region into a Blueprint. This effort aims to guide climate action involving diverse community interests and focuses on balancing biodiversity conservation, equitable access, and climate resilience. This work involved assembling and assessing national, state, and regional-scale spatial data along with expert opinion from scientists, conservation practitioners, rural community members, and Tribal groups, which we integrated into a suite of conservation focus areas and strategies. These efforts will continue to facilitate partnerships, improve funding alignment with existing sources of funds, and support future conservation finance initiatives. In this session, we will share our approach, outcomes and lessons learned, and provide a basic framework for similar efforts in other regions.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B13: Public and Private Partnerships – Working with the NPS, BLM and FWS
Now that the Land and Water Conservation Fund is permanently and fully funded, the land conservation community has the unique opportunity to achieve enormous land protection gains, especially through public/private partnerships.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B14: Acing Your ACEP-ALE Application Package
Do you have questions about how to strengthen your Agricultural Conservation Easement Pogram (ACEP) application packages? Is your land trust expanding its ACEP Program work? Join NRCS Easement Program Division team members for Acing your ACEP application package. During the session, you'll learn how to develop a strong ACEP application package, hear examples of successful projects and clarify areas where your land trust can improve your applications
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B15: Voices of Experience: The Accreditation Process
Learn about accreditation from land trusts who have been through the program. Whether you're considering applying for first-time accreditation or getting ready for renewal, representatives from accredited land trusts will talk about how they prepared to apply and relate their experiences going through the process.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B16: Setting the Table for Equitable Participation
As we determine who needs to be part of participatory processes we often ask, “How can we get the right people at the table? How can we ensure we don’t miss anyone?” These diversity and inclusion questions are important, yet there are deeper questions we need to ask ourselves in order to reach an equitable level of participation. In this workshop, we will explore key questions that help us design and facilitate equitable participatory processes. We’ll identify the barriers to equitable participation, how they are created, and how to overcome them, including how to uncover and meet the participation needs of diverse community members. These techniques will prepare us to create environments conducive to real and sustainable connections.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B17: Going Public: Driving Change and Upending Your Board Recruitment Process
It is often said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result. Yet that is precisely what we do with board recruitment. We use the same old processes to recruit and onboard new members and are disappointed when we cannot build our capacity through vital lived experiences and critical professional networks. This session invites you to break from the mold and join a burgeoning movement for an open application process for new board members! Leaders from Groundswell Conservancy, Ozaukee Washington Land Trust and Peninsula Open Space Trust discuss their work to bolster their already robust and dedicated boards with a wider array of skillsets and perspectives. Each organization is at a different stage of their board search process and but each has already experienced the benefits of taking their search public. Daniel Student, senior consultant with Potrero Group, will moderate this interactive conversation on lessons learned and best practices to help you enhance your board and generate dramatically new results for your organization.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B18: How and Why Land Trusts Should Support Conservation Funding
As the climate crisis becomes tangible to more people throughout the country, especially in underserved communities hardest hit by rising temperatures, erratic and powerful storms, and underinvestment in better and more equitable access to the outdoors, land trusts play a pivotal role in supporting, creating and leveraging public funding for the adaptation and conservation appropriate for their communities. At the time of writing, one-third of all states are considering the creation of public funding, which could create billions of dollars for parks, trails, lands, waters, natural climate solutions and more. Simultaneously, myriad counties, municipalities and districts are contemplating the creation, extension, or augmentation of local funding for conservation. For the last 25 years, Trust for Public Land has been involved with almost 650 successful ballot measures and dozens of statewide legislative campaigns creating more than $93 billion in new funding for parks, land conservation, restoration and more. Voters across the nation have approved 83% of the ballot measures directed and supported by TPL and, frequently, land trusts. During this workshop, attendees will learn about the varied efforts and mechanisms for conservation funding at the state and local level in 2023; the tools necessary to lead or support ballot measures and statewide legislation; and the Bitter Root Land Trust will share their story about the creation of county funding in a rural corner of Montana.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B19: Beautiful, Bountiful, Rare and Endangered: Protecting Global Mediterranean Habitats in the US and Around the World
Mediterranean ecosystems are found in only five places on earth: California, Mediterranean Europe (of course!), Chile, Australia and South Africa. These habitats also have a bit of everything —fertile soils that make them agricultural breadbaskets, temperate climates and beautiful landscapes where many people want to live and work, and biological diversity, with an unusual number of endemic plants. This makes them both global biodiversity hotspots and both rare and gravely threatened by unsustainable agriculture, forestry and commercial and residential real estate. In this panel, we'll hear from four experts who are at the forefront of efforts to protect Mediterranean habitats in California, Chile, Europe and Australia. We'll learn about the challenges they face, especially from the growing climate-change-driven impacts of wildfires and drought. Their approaches include innovative, resilience-based landscape and watershed management and land use planning, working landscape conservation easements, new private land protection agreements created outside the United States and more. The session will be of interest to Rally attendees who work in or want to learn more about Mediterranean habitats, and to practitioners conserving challenging, populated and ecologically significant landscapes.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B20: Partnerships to Restore Water for Healthy and Resilient Lands, Ecosystems and Communities
The program will highlight innovative partnerships to restore water for climate resiliency, habitat, and communities. Water is often an overlooked component of land trust work. As we reach ecological tipping points, it is clear that we need to act holistically across landscapes to restore resilient ecosystems. Recognizing the unique opportunities to restore water as part of land conservation, land trusts are leveraging new partnerships to integrate water into acquisition and stewardship projects. The program will highlight partnerships touching on Streamflow Restoration, Drinking Water Protection, Improved Water Quality, and Wet Meadow Restoration. Land conservation can provide opportunities to restore streamflows through the protection of water rights associated with the property as illustrated by the partnership between Deschutes Land Trust and Deschutes River Conservancy to improve water quantity in Whychus Creek. Land conservation can be an important tool to protect the quality and reliability of community drinking water sources. This program will highlight The Conservation Fund’s partnership with the coastal community of Port Orford to conserve land within its drinking watershed. Land conservation and stewardship provides opportunities to improve water quality. The Wetlands Conservancy’s work as part of the Tualatin Basin Beaver Strategy provides an example of collaborating across sectors to create beaver coexistence strategies to improve both water quality and quantity. In Southern Oregon, working lands easements with Oregon Agricultural Trust help ranchers continue traditional irrigation management practices that sustain ranching communities and waterfowl in the Pacific Flyway. Finally, Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts and its partners have worked hard to identify and develop funding sources to support the critical role of land in protecting safe and abundant drinking water; updates and opportunities will be discussed.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
B21: Traditional Harvest: Building Relationships Across Cultures and Restoring Access to Ancestral Land
*NOTE: This workshop was originally scheduled as E20 on Saturday and has been moved.* The Traditional Harvest Project represents a unique partnership between the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe (UMUT), Montezuma Land Conservancy (MLC) and Trees, Water and People (TWP) focused on improving Tribal access to culturally significant plants on and off Tribal lands. With the land base of the the Núchíú (Ute People) of the UMUT reduced to 600,000 acres of Reservation lands, traditional access for cultural harvest has been greatly impacted resulting in the overharvest of Tribal lands. Many plants collected for traditional use are becoming scarce and hard for the Tribal community to find or access. The reason behind this is two-fold: habitat degradation has reduced the capacity of native plant communities to naturally regenerate traditionally harvested species, and harvesting the same plants year after year from the same areas has led to local overharvest. On UMUT lands, landscape degradation is exacerbated by climate change and changes in river hydrology due to upstream water diversions. Now it is more important than ever to restore habitat, increase access, engage youth and share the stories and knowledge of elders to strengthen cultural connection. Join us to learn more about the development of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe Traditional Harvest Plan, TWP’s work in Tribal lands restoration and storytelling, MLC’s role in supporting access to privately conserved lands alongside landowner partners and strategies for authentic community engagement and relationship building. This project exists at the nexus of Indigenous knowledge, innovative private lands conservation strategy and intergenerational knowledge sharing across cultures.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C01: Winning the Win: Leveraging Policy Success for Climate and Conservation
Over the last two years, Congress has passed historic provisions for climate and conservation in the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA), Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). So what happens now? How can state and local organizations like land trusts and conservation alliances help leverage this legislation to support impactful projects, and share stories of success? This session will profile lessons learned and best practices for how organizations can educate key influencers about the benefits of GAO /IIJA / IRA, and advocate for local measures to support their implementation. Participants will have the opportunity to workshop scenarios for how they and their organizations could approach potential opportunities for engagement.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C02: New Partnerships and Opportunities for Conservation, Climate and Equity With LWCF
This session builds on the success of land trusts’ advocacy for full permanent funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), to explore new opportunities for partnership using this critical program for conservation that meets the current moment of climate crisis and persistent disparities in access to nature for underserved communities. We will present new pathways for collaborative projects using full permanent funding of LWCF opened up by the Biden Administration’s efforts to advance its America the Beautiful initiative, and examples of how LWCF advances climate and equity goals. The America the Beautiful initiative recognizes what we in the conservation community have long known: land is our greatest asset in the fight against climate change. The Administration is committed to natural climate solutions and to equitable access to nature, using the tools in the LWCF toolbox. This is evidenced by the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 which committed an additional $750M to the LWCF-funded Forest Legacy Program and by the largest-ever grant round for the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program announced by the Administration with key changes to empower greater partnership with diverse communities. We will present models for success using the LWCF toolbox to increase landscape connectivity, keep forests as forests for carbon sequestration and water storage/quality, partner with Tribal communities and provide more and better quality parks that increase climate resilience in places that have been left underserved.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C03: Nature-Based Solutions Planning for Coastal Communities
With increasing frequency and severity of coastal hazards across the country, the need for innovative resilience infrastructure continues to grow. Nature-based solutions are becoming preferred infrastructure practices due to their ability to increase the resilience of both human and wildlife communities. Finding common ground and building consensus among key stakeholders provides the means necessary to pave the way for deploying these practices. Likewise, obtaining a comprehensive understanding of the landscape within and beyond the boundaries of preserved properties goes a long way towards the holistic stewardship at the watershed level. This session will be discussing the Kiawah Conservancy's efforts to engage with stakeholders in their community to address barriers to coastal resilience by building a consensus on nature-based solutions and developing guidance documents. Additionally, this session will also discuss how we are using geospatial techniques and collaborative efforts to develop implementation strategies within the Kiawah River Watershed.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C04: Successful Management and Legal Strategies for Defending Conservation Easements
Case study from Alaska: A trespasser stripped the trees and vegetation off a land trust protected property, brought in dozens of dump truck loads of gravel which were then compacted creating ‘dead zones.’ We fought back and were ultimately successful in recouping our costs and restoring the property. Are you ready to successfully manage a major violation on one of your conserved properties? This session will help provide strategies, tools and tips for land trust staff, board, and attorneys to successfully handle a major violation. Join Great Land Trust’s executive director, stewardship director and attorney for a frank discussion including resources and strategies we used to achieve success.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
C05: TPL’s Toolbox: Communicating Benefits of Conservation with Data
A growing number of tools and resources can help land trusts identify where conservation is needed most. However, navigating these resources and communicating the results can be confusing and time consuming. Join members of Trust for Public Land’s new Land and People Lab to learn about simple, accessible tools and resources that can pinpoint where conservation is needed most to increase equitable access to the outdoors, support climate action and spur economic benefits. Access: Did you know that across the US, over 100 million people do not have access to a park within a 10-minute walk of their home? Learn how the ParkServe mapping platform empowers users to plan and advocate for new local parks to help close gaps in park access. Climate Action: Conservation Carbon Map is a newly updated tool that maps and quantifies forest carbon storage and sequestration, threats to that carbon from development, disease, and wildlife; and where co-benefits can be maximized. Economic benefits: TPL’s Conservation Economics team has analyzed the economic benefits of parks and green space in dozens of communities in the US. Learn how this research was applied in New York City, where TPL estimated ecosystem services and economic development benefits to help target potential investors for long-term park maintenance. Attendees to this session will learn how to leverage the data and evidence presented in these tools to help make the case for new or expanded funding for conservation, in places and for people that are most in need.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C06: Addressing Heirs’ Property Challenges and Remedies
This session will provide an overview of the heirs' property issues, and how it impacts the conservation of working lands, and heirs' property owners in the United States. The session will address the historical and present day uniqueness of the issue to underserved and minority communities, and discuss some of the remedies available to heirs' property owners.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C07: Drafting Conservation Easements for More Inclusive and Resilient Land Conservation
It is understandable that many land trusts are spooked by the IRS in drafting conservation easement restrictions. There are many considerations if the easement is wholly or partially donated, there are estate tax considerations, and, of course, nonprofit rules. In response, some land trusts and attorneys are suggesting tight restrictions on commercial uses, building, renewables and subdivision. While this may seem like a reasonable strategy now, it may not be the best approach for long term conservation and can present stewardship challenges. We will present considerations and tools for crafting easements that protect conservation values keeping in mind long-term stewardship, adaptability and commitment to inclusive conservation.
Rally2023_C07_CLE Outline and Materials CEs for More Inclusive and Resilient Land Conservation
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
C08: Climate Change and Land Trusts: A Changing Landscape
What happens when the perpetual nature of the conservation easement tool is threatened by changes in landscapes due to climate change? Bringing together research completed by Clemson University and real-life examples of conservation easements faced with the impacts of climate change, this presentation will discuss how land trusts can address climate change in conservation easements. Presenters will share the results of a research project that surveyed land trusts and landowners from 6 states, to assess how conservation easements can be adapted to address climate change. In one test case, The Nature Conservancy (TNC) encountered a significant habitat change due to sea level rise and shoreline change, due to climate change, on an existing conservation easement. TNC will discuss how the landowner and the land trust worked together to assess the changes in conservation values and how to adapt in the face of change. A second test case, brought by Pee Dee Land Trust, considers a new easement project with a landowner and attorney who are concerned about drafting an easement that will adjust to a dynamic coastal environment. The panel will bring these test cases and the study conducted by Dr. Dyckman together to discuss how land trusts can address easement amendments to address climate change and integrate flexibility to adjust to changing habitats and property conditions for new conservation easement projects.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C09: Building Community Resilience: How Housing & Conservation Groups Can Collaborate
This session will explore the benefits of collaborative efforts to address conservation and housing affordability needs in a community. Conservation and affordable housing groups have common interests: to put development where it belongs and protect land from being developed in ways that do not serve natural resource conservation or housing access/affordability goals. Land trusts can serve new community members by collaborating with and learning from affordable housing organizations. In this session, we will share examples from across the country of different ways that conservation and housing groups have worked together. You will learn about: the range of tools that conservation land trusts and affordable housing organizations can use to support community goals; concepts a land trust needs to know to successfully work with affordable housing organizations; what community land trusts and land banks are; and ideas for how your land trust can identify new partners and advance conservation, housing, and community needs.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C10: Land Return and Land Trusts
This workshop centers the voice, goals and perspectives of the Indigenous leadership behind two large-scale collaborations involving land trusts that are sharing land and resources and that are part of the land back movement. We will look at two large-scale collaborations among land trusts and Indigenous nations in Maine and Oregon to learn how to build relationships, move at the speed of trust, to return land and to bring the best minds together to care for land. On separate sides of the continent, dozens of land trusts have organized themselves into significant collaborations, pooling knowledge, money and skills to be in service to Indigenous Nations around access to land, land returns and cultural wellbeing. First Light is a collaboration between hundreds of leaders, 65 organizations and Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Maliseet and Micmac Communities working with the understanding that we are stronger together: many organizations might be able to achieve what one organization could not. Through moving at the speed of trust, these land trusts have returned a thousand acres and granted legal access to 78,000 acres with much more to come. In Oregon, 15 land trusts have come together to form the Oregon Land Justice Project whose mission is to partner with Indigenous Nations to reclaim and reconnect to their traditional landscapes and first foods. Both collective efforts aspire to reciprocity: to expand Indigenous access, presence and relationship to land for our collective wellbeing and to create a stronger conservation movement that includes and reflects Indigenous expertise. All will benefit from this, and it all begins with a more equitable redistribution of land and resources.We will share the motivations, structures and results of this work that is redefining what land trusts do, what conservation means, and promises to reform the relationship between conservation and Indigenous nations.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C11: Tapping into New Federal Climate Resilience Funding for Land Trusts and Defense Communities
Land trusts and conservation organizations play a critical role in supporting the climate resilience goals of military installations and their surrounding communities. Recent federal legislation has generated unprecedented levels of funding across federal resilience programs, which the Department of Defense Readiness and Environmental Protection Integration Program catalogues in its annual Resilience Project Funding Guide. This session will explore federal funding opportunities from this guide that have been underutilized by the land conservation community, including programs from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Bureau of Reclamation, and the Environmental Protection Agency. A panel of experts will discuss how these agencies evaluate nature-based solutions approaches to climate resilience and share insights about how to build relationships with these agencies to create competitive funding proposals. This session will focus on specific funding strategies for land trusts and conservation organizations who partner with military installations as well as provide broader lessons learned about landscape-level approaches to climate resilience in the context of defense communities.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C12: Implicit Bias and Gender in Conservation
Most people have some implicit bias about gender and gender roles. Even people who strongly value gender equity and would prefer to see more women in leadership positions may find that their implicit biases work against their intentions. While gender bias may be more underground, unfortunately it still lives among us. The good news is that naming bias and knowing how it bias works serves as the critical first step in mitigating and counteracting implicit gender bias. This session will share information to provide context for gender bias in the conservation community. The workshop will create space for participants to talk in small groups about how gender bias impacts them and their work. The workshop design will allow participants, those identifying as women, men and gender nonbinary, to walk away with steps for professional development, strategies to counter bias and ways to pro-actively work against gender bias in our conservation context.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C13: Advanced Leadership: Develop an Empowered Management Team
The good news is that many land trusts have grown a lot over the last 10 years and they have more employees and far more capacity. The bad news is that many of us spend all of our time developing essential conservation and fundraising skills, but we neglect to dive deeply into organizational development and leadership skills. Executive Directors (EDs) become burned out. Other employees feel less engaged. Friction increases and communication withers. The result is often more people feeling like they have never been busier. There is an art and a science to organizational development and leadership. This workshop will both teach and inspire. Two veteran land trust leaders and colleagues will provide practical advice, a real life model and lessons learned relative to developing and retaining empowered, engaged and exceptional senior staff. In 1996 Chagrin River Land Conservancy (now known as Western Reserve or WRLC) hired its first employee and executive director (co-presenter Rich Cochran). Today, WRLC has more than 50 employees, annual revenues of more than $25 million and it controls and operates several subsidiaries and related organizations. Cochran remains the executive director/CEO. After two attempts (one failed and one successful), WRLC created a highly effective management and leadership model that includes a management team that is completely independent of the executive director/CEO. Presenter Stella Dilik served as the first chair of the management team in 2021. This workshop will be highly interactive and will touch on topics such as leadership, organizational development, succession planning and governance.
Rally2023_C13_Presentation Rich, Stella, Alex Advanced leadership
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C14: Staffing for Stewardship
This session will discuss the process for hiring qualified stewardship staff including job descriptions for stewardship staff levels, technical skill requirements, interview questions and testing components. We will discuss the Americorps Land Steward program implemented by Virginia Outdoors Foundation to help new college graduates start a land conservation career. Appropriate training course components for new staff will also be covered. Staff morale and retention components including cross training on other land protection skills (land management, easement drafting, baseline documentation reports) will be discussed as will several successful morale booster examples. The pros and cons of stewardship volunteers will also be covered.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C15: Putting the Fun in Major Donor Fundraising: Get the Skinny on Fat Gifts
Fundraising should not be hard or scary. Learn from a couple of executive directors who have no fundraising training whatsoever, but who have found remarkable success by engaging donors in novel ways. Learn about building friendships and relationships with donors and not just squeezing them for support. Why have an uncomfortable conversation in some coffee shop or stuffy restaurant when when you can have fun on the ski slope, fishing river or hiking trail. Learn from real peers about how we raise money for our operations and projects and receive ideas from peers that will work for your land trust.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C16: No-Cost and Low-Cost Data: Powerful Insight into Donors and Prospects
All land trusts want fundraising to be more efficient and effective. Not every land trust has a large budget for acquiring data to support such efforts. All land trusts can use additional data to enhance what they have. Data sources such as the US Census and county records provide powerful new insight, yet require only a small investment of time and money. Every land trust should know how to access and use these valuable resources. This workshop explains how. Real-world case studies demonstrate how lands trusts have applied these data to answer important questions such as: What new perspectives can I gain on donors and donor prospects? What can I learn from more creative analysis of my own data? How can I build accurate predictive forecasting models? What can I learn about improving access for underserved groups?
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C17: State-Endangered Turtles, Invasive Plants and Animals and Partnerships to Improve Habitat
Welcome to the Pacific Northwest (PNW)! Hop on the turtle train and learn about the journey of private and public lands, turtles and invasive species (both plants and animals). Friends of the Columbia Gorge Land Trust, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife, United States Fish and Widlife Service (USFWS), and PNW Ecoservices come together to share the story of the imperiled Washington State-listed Western pond turtle and controlling invasive species to improve habitat at a land trust preserve and adjacent US Forest Service land. Himalayan blackberry and the American bullfrog have wreaked havoc for this turtle and presenters will discuss control techniques and timing as well as lessons learned. Learn about cross-boundary stewardship work, how volunteers have been engaged, the status of pond turtles in WA State and how partnerships have been critical to the success of this project including the procurement of funding from the USFWS Partners For Fish and Wildlife Program to support his work.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
C18: Voluntary Water Right Transactions and Instream Transfers for Conservation Purposes
Land trusts are increasingly in contact with landowners through conservation transactions that touch on or include water and water rights. At the same time, few land trusts have the experience or in-house capacity to engage with water. This panel will showcase western regional water transactions and instream flow transfers, including conservation strategy, permitting, funding, partners and "lessons learned." Presenters will highlight tools and showcase transactions which include water rights: sale, lease, and/or donation, valuations, as well as forbearance agreements and instream transfers pursuant to state law.
Rally2023_C18_AMP TWR Walker Basin Article (1)
Rally2023_C18_Hicks - Permanent Forbearance Agreement Template v 3-14-23
Rally2023_C18_Hicks - State Authorities Real Property Interests
Rally2023_C18_Hicks Article re Kinross Water Rights Donated - March 2019 - Final for ABA Publication
Rally2023_C18_Hicks TU to IRS Priority Guidance List 11-18-21
Rally2023_C18_Hicks TU US Treasury Briefing June 23 2022 - full slidedeck R
Rally2023_C18_Nichols LTA Rally Hicks Panel 2023 Materials - Peter Nichols
Rally2023_C18_P Byorth - Case Study Donated Entire Interest 20230706
Rally2023_C18_P Byorth LTA Rally Draft Presentation 20230706 R
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
Celebrating 50 Years with Trust for Public Land
Trust for Public Land is 50 years old! We’re celebrating half a century of impact and partnership with the land trust community. To commemorate this golden anniversary, we hope you’ll join us for an evening of drinks, light appetizers, and a short program featuring special guests. RSVP here>>>
LGBTQIA+ Reception
All LGBTQIA+ Rally attendees and allies are cordially invited to a networking reception. Come meet your LGBTQIA+ conservation colleagues and share in food, drinks and fun conversation. Hosted by Bold Bison and the Land Trust Alliance.
Western Rivers Conservancy Reception
Western Rivers Conservancy invites all Rally attendees and friends for drinks and appetizers at their headquarters, located downtown a few minutes from the Convention Center on the MAX Rail Line. Mingle with colleagues and celebrate WRC’s 35-year history of creating sanctuaries for fish, wildlife and people and securing recreational access along the great rivers of the West. RSVP - Western Rivers Conservancy
Session Location: Western Rivers Conservancy Headquarters, 71 SW Oak Street, Suite 100, Portland.
TriMet MAX Rail Line directions to Western Rivers Conservancy:
TriMet MAX Rail Line (Blue or Red) From the Oregon Convention Center MAX Station Westbound – take the MAX Blue Line to Hillsboro or MAX Red Line to City Center & Beaverton Exit at the Oak/SW 1st Ave MAX Station. Walk a half block to the east on SW Oak Street.
TriMet MAX Rail Line (Green) From the Oregon Convention Center MAX Station Westbound take the MAX Green Line to City Center/PSU. Exit at the SW 5th & Oak MAX Station. Walk five blocks east on Oak Street to 71 SW Oak Street.
Land and Climate Reception
Come mix, mingle and relax over hors d’oeuvres and drinks at Spirit of 77, across the street from the convention center. This premiere networking opportunity provides time to talk with peers and colleagues from across the United States about the opportunities to address climate change in our work. R.S.V.P. here >>
Columbia Sportswear Shop Night
Columbia Sportswear invites you to a private shop night at its flagship store in downtown Portland. Shop and enjoy 20% off your purchase with 10% of your purchase to be donated to the Land Trust Alliance. Light snacks and beverages will also be available.The Columbia flagship store is easily accessible on the light rail via the Green, Red or Blue line.
Yale School of the Environment Alumni Reception
Yale School of the Environment invites all alumni and those affiliated with YSE to gather for drinks and hors d’oeuvres at the YSE Alumni Reception in Room B119 at the Oregon Convention Center.
Yoga
Begin your day with an hour of stretching the mind, body and spirit. Prepare yourself to experience a busy day more fully focused. All levels are welcome. Additional Fee Required
Price: $20
Fun Run
Join us for a 2-mile morning fun starting at the Hyatt Hotel and going along the Eastbank Espalande trail on the Riverbank. We’ll then turn around and head back to the hotel. The run will be led by Jorge Astorga, Membership and Affiliate Services Manager for the Land Trust Alliance and he will lead the pack with a steady 5mph/12 minute pace. Novice and seasoned runners are welcome to join us. Those who wish to join can meet at the hotel lobby at 7:15am and we’ll depart at 7:30am sharp.
Alliance Policy Overview Breakfast
Join the Alliance's Government Relations team for a breakfast to discuss the 2023 Farm Bill and other issues you care about and provide input that will help us develop our 2024 policy agenda. RSVPs will be collected later this summer.
Insuring a Nation’s Future
Join Meghan Mullee of Alliant Insurance for a dynamic networking event with a special focus on insurance and risk management for land trusts. Insurance instills confidence in stakeholders by demonstrating a commitment to responsible stewardship, and fosters a secure environment for landowners, donors, volunteers, and staff, encouraging their continued involvement in critical conservation projects. Come to share your risk management tips and best practices, and to ask your most pressing questions related to insuring your land trust’s programming, events and operations. All attendees will receive a complimentary electronic Conserve-A-Nation® Risk Management Guide desk reference, and priority scheduling for an insurance review after Rally.
Saturday Plenary
The future of conservation is now! Land trusts are embracing new partnerships, collaborations and collective visions that are catalyzing a significant increase in the pace and scale of land conservation and ensuring that land conservation provides equitable community benefits alongside lasting conservation results. Join us at the Saturday plenary where we will celebrate the Scholars for Conservation Leadership Program, a career and leadership development program launched by the Land Trust Alliance and the USDA, Forest Service, State & Private Forestry, Cooperative Forestry, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. We will also hear from Terry Cross, senior advisor at the National Indian Child Welfare Association and Aja DeCoteau, executive director of the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission. We will also celebrate the Oregon Advancing Conservation Excellence Program, an organizational capacity program that is also being replicated in Texas and Colorado. Through strategic investments, the program is helping land trusts throughout the region raise money, add staff, implement best practices, embrace new technology and become more inclusive. It is helping land trusts find meaningful ways to address the concerns of groups who have not traditionally been involved in land conservation. With new and diverse partners, land trusts are growing and sharing fresh produce, restoring salmon streams, bringing back native oysters, hosting outdoor community events and so much more. They are improving public health, connecting people to land and bringing diverse groups together in common cause. As they conserve natural resources, they are weaving strength into our social fabric.
D01: Using Data and Remote Sensing for Resilient Conservation
We all know that the land we protect forever won’t look the same forever. From habitat shift and meandering streams to extreme weather events, wildfires, and sea level rise, the conditions we captured in our baseline report are not likely to be the same conditions even a few years later. In this workshop, we will share case studies of how Sonoma County Ag + Open Space is using GIS and remote sensing data related to climate change impacts—in particular wildfire risk, flood risk, sea level rise, and drought—in strategic planning, conservation easement design, and easement stewardship. We will showcase local and California statewide data, as well as alternate free or low-cost resources.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D02: Integrating Climate Sustainability into Land Trust Operations
Duke Farms is a 2,700-acre center for environmental stewardship in Hillsborough, NJ, that restores the natural environment, invests in sustainability innovation while offering visitors free inclusive and accessible resources for finding their place in nature. In this interactive workshop, we will detail tools that Duke Farms has used to integrate sustainability into operations. Duke Farms has used these tools to successfully minimize our carbon footprint, reduce waste and maximize use of renewable energy sources. We will also focus on operational sustainability goals of the participants. Participants will develop a draft plan to assess climate and environmental impact of their operations, develop sustainability goals and identify resources to assist them on their sustainability journey.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D03: Yurts, Wall Tents, RV’s and Cabins: To Be Or Not To Be A Residential Structure
With the increased pressure for recreational access and the emergence of companies that facilitate short-term rentals, land trusts are encountering more requests for extensive recreational uses of conserved properties paired with overnight occupancy. Where is the line between recreational and residential? How can land trusts steward existing, and sometimes vague, conservation easements in a way that upholds their obligations, protects the conservation values, and supports the landowners’ ability to create revenue and create outdoor access? Panelists will discuss stewardship challenges and drafting suggestions to make these questions easier to answer going forward.
Rally2023_D03_Caselaw Summaries for Recreation Residential Structures
Rally2023_D03_Example CE Language Handout_final
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
D04: Telling Your Story Your Way
We will explore ways that diverse communities with connections to and history with the land can tell their stories their way. We will get to the hard questions if how to tell the tough stories as well as the inspiring ones, drawing from the experiences of our panel of culturally diverse partners as well as engaging attendees in sharing their experiences so that all of us can learn. Every story of the land is part of a continuum without a beginning or an end of tough stories, sad stories, easy stories and exciting stories, all of which are chapters in the bigger story about a place, its people, communities, cultures and natural history. One benefit of this session will be exploring ways to tell the tough stories in the context of, and part of, that continuum, not only to better inform each generation but as a form of healing .This process starts with building partnerships, listening, offering platforms, having patience and valuing the results. The panelists all work telling land-based stories from educational to archived digital audio content to mobile storytelling. The session will encourage audience discussion of developing these strategic story-seeking and storytelling skills.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D05: Coming Soon to Land Near You: “Forever Chemical” Contamination
In January of 2022, farms in Maine began testing high for the second time for PFAS contamination. PFAS or “forever chemicals” are found in many products, last for generations, and are tied to multiple health issues. Since the 1970s, farms across the country have been encouraged to spread municipal and industrial sewage sludge residuals on their fields, unaware of the PFAS chemicals they contain or their long-term impacts. Maine is one of the first states to take a comprehensive approach to investigating PFAS contamination on farms, supporting impacted farmers and preventing future contamination. This session will explore how land trusts, their allies and states can respond to PFAS contamination on farms, and actions that need to be taken on the federal level to address this issue.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D06: How to Implement a Grassland Carbon Offset Project
In this workshop, we will walk land trust managers and landowners through the development of an Avoided Conversion of Grassland project. This will be an interactive session where land trust managers and landowners will identify whether their region of focus is eligible for avoided conversion of grassland projects and the requirements for grassland project development. The session will review considerations for developing a grassland carbon offset project: cost, contracts and long-term commitments. It will be welcome for interaction regarding specific projects and address concerns landowners may have. Attendees will walk away with a basic understanding of stakeholders involved in development and how to begin evaluating whether a grassland project is a fit for their land trust.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D07: Intro to Title Review for Conservation Easement Transactions
This session will provide some basics about reviewing a preliminary title insurance commitment and related documents during a conservation easement transaction. It will focus on a number of real-life title issues the presenter has experienced and will include some pointers on how to identify and resolve such title issues
Rally2023_D07 Intro to Title Review
Rally2023_D07_LTA Practical Pointer.Lien and mortgage subordination
Rally2023_D07_LTA Practice 9F.Title Investigation and Recording
Rally2023_D07_LTA.Closing the Transaction.120920
Rally2023_D07_LTA.Title Investigation
Rally2023_D07_Sample title review memorandum
Rally2023_D07_Session Outline [Intro to Title Review][Bourguignon]
Rally2023_D07_Title Commitment sample [Montana]
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
D08: Practical Pointers on IRS Form 8283 and Gift Letters
Correctly completing Form 8283 can make or break a conservation easement deduction and the IRS issued a new version of this form in November 2022. The IRS has fully denied deductions because of improperly completed forms or the lack of required documentation. A contemporaneous written acknowledgement is required to be received by the donor for the donation to be deductible. Knowing what transaction expenses are deductible is also critical, as many are unaware that reimbursing a landowner for such expenses could render the donation a "bargain sale." While donors are legally responsible for substantiating donations, land trusts may assist donors to understand the forms, so long as they don't provide legal advice. The session will also discuss how a donee organization should review a donor's appraisal, what to do if the claimed value is so high as to "shock the conscience," and recent changes to Land Trust Standards and Practices and recent court cases related to Form 8283 and gift letters.
Handout 1a- Form 8283 Blank (11-2022)
Handout 1b- Form 8283 Instructions (12-2021)
Handout 2a- Form 8283 Sample Filled Out- CE Bargain Sale (2023)
Handout 2b- Form 8283 Sample Filled Out- Fee Donation (2023)
Handout 3- Sample Form 8283 Supplemental Statement (2023)
Handout 4a- Gift Substantiation Regulations 2018-15734
Handout 4b- IRS Publication 1771 (Gift Letters)
Handout 5a- LTA IRSNotice2017-10
Handout 5b- TaxShelterAdvisoryFlowChart
Handout 6- LTA Handout- Appraisals for Landowners
Handout 7- LTA Practical Pointer for 8283 and Appraisal Review
Handout 8- Valuing CEs under 1.170A-14(h)(3) (CCM 201334039)
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
D09: 21st Century Conservation: The Intersection of Climate, Community, Culture and Land
As the urgency for increased protection of our nation's natural resources accelerates and gains attention through initiatives such as President Biden's 30x30, so is the need for deeper and more authentic community engagement. Learn from four experienced conservation practitioners who have entered this space in South Carolina and are leading by listening. Case studies of projects that have involved land acquisition, community building, climate solutions, equitable access, preservation of culture and advocacy will be presented and will demonstrate how synergies can be found if one is open to collaboration.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D10: Advancing Programming to Connect Communities to Conservation
Learn about how to create strategic planning objectives for developing and executing new or expanding programming, cultivate meaningful community partnerships and implement community-engaged programming. This workshop will review how Shirley Heinze Land Trust was able to build organizational capacity and develop meaningful partnerships to create and implement new community-engaged programming in the urban and rural areas of its geography. Hear perspectives from staff at different levels of the organization as the executive director reviews planning and organizational visioning to develop new strategic programming, project manager discusses identifying partners and building trust in new communities as well as creating efficiencies to build capacity, and programs coordinator outlines how to develop and implement programs and gathering community feedback on program effectiveness. The workshop will include a live breakout discussion where participants will play out real life examples of challenging community engagement scenarios. The session will wrap with a question and answer session with staff as well as board and advisory council members involved in the organization’s urban and agricultural community outreach and programming.
Rally2023_D10_Scenario - Conservation-Focused Community Planning
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Rally2023_D10_Scenario - Renewable Energy and Land Use
Rally2023_D10_Scenario- Industry and Stakeholders
RALLY2023_09_09_Final Draft PDF
Scenario - Renewable Energy and Land Use
Shirley Henze Land Trust Strategic Plan 2020-2023
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D11: Caring in Public: Community-Managed Open Space as Social Infrastructure
Too-often community managed urban spaces are presented in an almost utopian light, obfuscating the often messy, iterative on the ground reality. But what is the cost of this gap between image and reality? It ends up favoring capital over human investment, disappears community labor, emphasizes instrumental outcomes and simplifies complex community stories. So how might we share a more complete story of community-managed spaces, one that captures their full value and makes visible their too-often hidden benefits? One strategy is to reframe community stewarded spaces as an important part of cities’ social infrastructure—physical spaces, organizations and actions that support civic life. This workshop will delve into the building blocks of social infrastructure first through the prism of community gardens in Chicago and then through a breakout exercise where participant will be invited to diagram how other urban open spaces function (and don’t) as social infrastructure. Research has found that civic stewardship groups activate green space to function as social infrastructure in a range of important ways. Stewards foster friendships, associations and social cohesion. They create gathering spaces and enliven them with place-based and culturally relevant programming and engage in community organizing and planning. There is not one magic framework that will tell the true story of community gardens, but it is crucial that we pay attention to the profound work occurring in community-managed spaces, and tell the story that does these efforts justice. For the Chicago case studies, we will share how a team of practitioners and researchers from the Central Park Conservancy institute for Urban Parks, NeighborSpace (land trust), Borderless (design studio) and the USDA Forest Service – Northern Research Station, developed diagrams which visualize the visible and invisible systems at play and more fully communicate the outcomes and benefits of community managed spaces.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D12: Recreation Economy for Rural Communities
This session will introduce the land trust community to the Recreation Economy for Rural Communities (RERC) program and community planning process along with the technical requirements to make a planning committee and be competitive applicants for the next application cycle. The session will also share some success stories from Thompson Falls, MT and Cambridge, NY – two communities who have participated in the RERC program. Come for an interactive and fun session to learn about the RERC program and ways to boost outdoor recreation in your community.
Rally2023_D12_Itinerary Exercise Instructions
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D13: Beyond Workshops and Trainings: Bringing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging to Land Trusts
Land trusts across the country identify priorities that include saving land, strengthening communities, and creating a healthier community (just to name a few). These priorities are the pillars of our visions and our missions. Making our visions come to fruition year after year requires a roadmap. We build strategic plans (roadmaps) to drive operations, staffing, infrastructure and program as well as measure our success periodically. Diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging (DEIB) requires us to think beyond staff workshops and incorporate DEIB intentionally into our organizational culture. Come explore steps to building your land trust's DEIB roadmap of actionable items to create long-term change and support the values we all uphold.
Continuum on Becoming an Anti-Racist, Multicultural Org
SP Identifying Organizational Readiness Checklist (2)
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D14: Get Set for Success: Tips and Guidance for Avoiding Common Mistakes When Applying for Accreditation
Put your best application forward by learning about the pitfalls and mistakes Commission review staff commonly see during the application process. Hear guidance and learn tips from reviewers so you can be confident when navigating the first-time or renewal process.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D15: Coloring Outside the Lines: A Collaborative Fundraising Case Study
In 2021, Oregon Desert Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy partnered to create one of the largest conservation projects in Oregon by purchasing the 16,645-acre Trout Creek Ranch in southeast Oregon. This property includes livestock grazing permits on nearly 500,000 acres of public land and helps connect several established conservation areas, including national wildlife refuges and a wilderness area. This successful project raised nearly $15M in a year thanks to a shared strategy. Our learnings from this project have created the foundation for continued partnerships for decades to-come and teach us much about how organizations can collaborate effectively on a topic that can often divide organizations (fundraising).
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D16: Impact Investing for Conservation: How to Attract New Money and Engage Existing Supporters
Impact investing. Everyone is talking about it, but what exactly is it? As a land trust leader, how do you tap into it? Who among your peers is already doing it? Can we get our existing supporters to invest in our work? Is it right for my organization? In this engaging and interactive session, participants will learn about the investment world and how more and more land trusts around the country are tapping into this relatively new source of funding for bridge loans and other uses to accelerate and achieve their goals.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D17: Starting and Sustaining an Inclusive Backyard Habitat Program
The Backyard Habitat Certification Program (BHCP), co-managed by Columbia Land Trust and Portland Audubon, began as a small neighborhood pilot project to protect and enhance land trust properties by motivating adjacent private property owners to remove invasive weeds and naturescape with native plants. Fifteen years and 10,000 properties later, it has gained widespread recognition as an invaluable tool to engage new urban/suburban audiences in stewardship of their own yards and community spaces, while connecting them to broader conservation initiatives. Through this program, participating people and properties are enhancing essential habitat corridors, creating a more permeable landscape for wildlife, directly addressing human/wildlife conflicts that bring injured animals to Portland Audubon’s Wildlife Care Center and developing life-long connections between these tangible actions and broader organizational goals (membership, land/water stewardship, community engagement, climate change resilience, advocacy, etc.). This inspiring and interactive session will encompass our program’s journey, demonstrate why we think this work is critical to the future of conservation and provide session participants a facilitated opportunity to nurture and share ideas for launching, or further developing, their own urban conservation programs.
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Rally2023_D17_CERTIFICATION CRITERIA - 2017
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Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D18: Trail Management for Beginners
If you have publicly accessible trails on your protected lands but want some help managing those, this is the presentation for you! We will review the basics of trail design, building and maintenance and review what issues and concerns to be on the lookout for should you have to contract out for the trail work. We'll also review running a volunteer trail program in case you want to develop your own.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
D19: Case Studies on the Benefits of Remote Monitoring on Stewardship and Management
The California chapter of The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and the Land Trust Alliance partnered to create a two-year grant program for land trusts to access remote sensing technologies for monitoring. This program was based on the TNC’s experience with implementing remote monitoring in California and in chapters nation-wide. Each land trust and TNC Chapter submitted return on investment data that showed a similar spread of experiences and results. Come learn how land trusts and TNC Chapters of different sizes, with land holdings across the continental United States, implemented remote monitoring, found cost and time savings, created new policies and procedures, reduced risk to staff and conservation values and expanded their uses of the technology beyond monitoring. The presenters will discuss unique use cases that address the challenges and solutions that TNC Chapters and land trusts found over a two-year time period.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E01: Using Climate Resilience and Incorporating Inclusive Community Engagement in a Climate Plan
The Columbia River Gorge Commission (CRGC) is a bi-state commission that works to establish, implement and enforce policies and programs that protect and enhance the scenic, natural, recreational and cultural resources of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area (NSA). CRGC’s territory overlaps with the accredited Friends of the Columbia Gorge. The CRGC adopted its first climate plan,the Climate Change Action Plan (CCAP), in 2022, after more than a year of effort collaborating with tribes, regional partners and the public. One of many strategies adopted in the CCAP is centered around protection of High Climate Resilience Areas. Throughout the development of the CCAP, Friends and CRGC worked in a highly collaborative fashion to share GIS data and make recommendations for land protection goals. The end result is a shared set of geographic priorities centered around climate resilience for both the CRGC and Friends. Community outreach was also a critical aspect of developing the CCAP, and another area of collaboration between the two groups. Friends helped with outreach by connecting CRGC staff with leaders, community groups and communications forums to the local Latino community. This included a series of workshops and listening sessions focused on simplifying and translating the complexities of the CCAP for these audiences. CRGC also actively worked with tribal partners to focus on First Foods and cultural resource protection. The session will share information on our approach, lessons learned and the value that land trusts can bring to agency climate planning.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E02: Climate Resilience Spatial Conservation Planning: Analysis to Implementation
Conservation has been primarily focused on the protection of places so that they can stay the way that they've been in the past, for decades, or for the past hundreds, or thousands of years. But climate impacts will fundamentally change some of these places and how they function over time. This session will help you understand where in the landscape the land will most likely retain the important features that will benefit future ecological integrity, and future generations of our human communities. This presentation will be a thorough and instructive review of an analysis conducted together by two neighboring land trusts and a GIS contractor. Based on the best available data (including The Nature Conservancy's Conserving Nature’s Stage and Resilient and Connected Network data), and resulting in a series of priority opportunity areas, the analysis provides a new focus for communities preparing for the shifting climate conditions and provides a template for other land trusts and communities to follow. We will review how resilient lands were assessed across four main pillars of work that the two land trusts are committed to: habitat and biodiversity, working farms, working forests and community. Implementation of the analysis through land trust practices and community engagement will also be described.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E03: A To Do List for Sustainable, Perpetual Land Conservation: Opportunities for Reform
Over the last two decades of the half-century-old field of land conservation law, the conservation community has instituted crucial supportive mechanisms and implemented new infrastructure to stabilize the perpetuity-long duration of conservation easements and their holders. After a half-century of incredibly successful conservation work, it is essential now to evaluate the practical, policy and ethical impacts of our work to focus on urgent needs and obtainable outcomes in the short-term, and see-changing, aspirational goals for the long-term. From bolstering and expanding conservation incentives in the face of extensive abuse, to integrating private land protection within communities, shifting land monetization and valuation approaches, unbundling notions of land ownership, and re-democratizing and restoring land access and use, presenters will share a conservation checklist intended to sustain and secure perpetual land conservation as a continuing dynamic and flexible source for local, state, federal and global protection and management of critical resources, while ensuring equitable, inclusive, diverse and just land conservation for the future.
Rally2023_E03_AToDoListforSustainablePerpetualConservationOutline
KIC Statewide Plan PLCP_Working FINAL REPORT - 11-11-22_resized
E03_CSUAlternativeValuationReport
LTARally2023AToDoListforSustainablePerpetualConservation8.29.23.1.pptx
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
E04: The Language of Conservation: Messaging to Secure Support for Conservation
This session will focus on clear, actionable communications recommendations from a 2023 national public opinion poll and series of focus groups conducted by the bipartisan polling team of Dave Metz and Lori Weigel. The research builds upon a series of national polls that track voters’ opinions on land, water, climate and other conservation priorities. This year's research will have with an intensive focus on emerging conservation policy issues that impact all of our work, including energy siting, implementation of federal infrastructure and climate spending, resiliency and equity.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E05: The Monster Under the Bed: How to Overcome Your Fear of Your Website
Does the thought of updating your website give you anxiety? Maybe you think you’re going to break something because you “don’t know code.” Maybe you always put it off because even small changes take so much time. Maybe, no matter what you do, it never actually works right, so it sits there tormenting you with its problems. Because it’s a burden, it goes unmaintained and slowly starts to fall apart, and then you don't know how to start fixing it. The reality is that when you have the right tools, there’s nothing to be afraid of. Managing a website can not only be very easy, but also very fun when you have the confidence to keep things up to date. And we’ll prove it by building a website on the spot during this workshop. Join Bold Bison for this engaging, skills-based workshop where we’ll unpack some of the common challenges land trusts face in maintaining their websites. We will learn how to evaluate your website not only for the quality of its content, but also for the tools you need to run it. We’ll learn about some of the many tools that exist to make your life easier because they’re designed for non-technical web managers. Finally, we’ll spend time reviewing the pros and cons of building a new website and how to get the process started.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E06: Cows and Conservation: Reconciling Ranching and Resilience in the Klamath-Siskiyou Region
Grasslands of the mountain west are among the most ecologically essential, and threatened landscapes in the region. Grassland birds, for example, are among the fastest declining of native species, having lost 53% of their population since the 1970s. Mid-elevation meadows, savannas, chaparral and forests in southwestern Oregon and northwest California — a biodiversity hotspot known as the Klamath-Siskiyou region — combine immense carbon capture potential, diverse habitats, and an integral place in the regional ranching economy. But conservation and working lands interests often are considered to conflict, particularly when cattle are involved. Three practitioners from conservation easement lands in Southern Oregon and Northern California will discuss integrating conservation-oriented grazing, riparian and weed management approaches that sustainably reconcile ranching with climate resilience, watershed restoration and protection of sensitive flora and fauna, mutually benefiting migratory fish and wildlife corridors while conducting economically viable, sustainable agriculture on conserved working lands.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E07: Community Centered Conservation: Two successful case studies of Creating Community Forests
Dramatic changes are occurring in much of rural America. This is particularly true in our working landscapes of forests and agriculture. Ownership structures are shifting from local or regional to large multi-national organizations with only passing interests in local impacts of their land use like limiting public access, externalizing the costs of sedimentation and other by-products, and perhaps most importantly, conversion and fragmentation of large blocks of working lands. Locally owned community forests offer a unique opportunity to impact this trend in a positive way. Community Forests protect drinking water, provide access, generate revenue through management, store carbon through improved management practices, protect habitat, and if managed creatively, can provide other economic benefits through the evolving recreation economy. They also build community cohesion through a "common cause" sensibility. Local ownership is a profound game changer for rural America. We will present two case studies of the successful creation of community forests using Federal Community Forest and State Revolving Funds (clean water act), one in New England and the other in the Pacific Northwest. These presentations will be lead by the local project managers who lead these efforts along with local community representatives who envisioned then lead the efforts in their communities. We will then talk about continues efforts around fund raising, community involvement and economic development as these communities actualize their visions and will end with an extended Q and A period.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E08: Appraisal Process Management
Land trusts touch appraisal process and procedure by evaluating Form 8283 whether there are concerns with the appraisal or value opinion. Appraisal review has increased in importance for land trust staff and board members. At the same time, land trusts have a perpetual need to find qualified appraisers who perform conservation valuation services. Appraisers face increased audit and litigation risk, causing some to turn away from conservation work altogether. This includes new penalty regimes by the Internal Revenue Service. This session will attempt to improve the awareness and understanding of appraisal and appraisal review process and procedure and to understand and improve the climate for conducting conservation appraisal to attract a greater number of appraisers to conservation easement practice.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E09: Partnering with Tribes to Protect Conservation Values
Save the Redwoods League purchased redwood forestland with mitigation funding from PGandE, then conveyed title to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council, a consortium of ten Tribes. The Council then conveyed a conservation easement to the League. Completing the transaction required reconciling competing legal interests, navigating differing timeframes, decision-making approaches and elevating the importance of restoring the land to native ownership over alternate paths to preserving the land. The session will focus on: Tribal sovereign immunity and tools to consider a limited waiver in connection with a conservation easement; Tribal processes and considerations in a limited waiver; drafting an enforceable limited waiver including additional instruments to language in the conservation easement; and addressing the interests of third-party funders, whether agencies or other entities, in satisfying a mitigation requirement.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
E10: The Fifeville Trail: Reconnecting a Segregated Community
The recently-completed Fifeville Community Trail reconnects a historically Black neighborhood in the heart of Charlottesville, VA to a park that is the neighborhood’s cultural core, while linking residents of all ages to jobs and shopping via a low-stress alternative to busy streets that lack sidewalks. This community-led project restores a historic connection that was severed by Urban Renewal and is part of a larger effort by the community to preserve their neighborhood and improve community health. As corollary, the project opened for public enjoyment a privately owned forested property that includes a stream, wildlife and historic resources. The project is remarkable because of the close partnership between diverse community groups, the City of Charlottesville, a landowner and multiple foundations–with a land trust (the Piedmont Environmental Council) as a catalytic partner. The session will include social, historic and geographic orientation, first-hand accounts from local leaders via a recorded panel discussion, a summary of strategies for translating good will to on-the-ground change and a workshop on how these ingredients could be successful in session attendees’ practices and communities.
Learn more about the Fifeville Community Trail and view the panel discussion at www.pecva.org/fifeville
Peter can be reached at pkrebs@pecva.org
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E11: No Experience Required! Conservation Internships Reimagined
Few scholarly programs provide the practical experience and hands-on training required to enter the field of conservation, outside of academia. However, the majority of jobs lie outside of the academy. Programs that provide quality training to a diverse group of young people are essential for the sustainability of our field and can be accomplished by a multitude of conservation organizations. The Conservation Leader Internship Program (CLIP) is a paid summer internship that provides underserved, first-generation, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ youth with hands-on professional training in the field of conservation. Participants gain experience in areas such as plant identification, land management, GIS/GPS training, prescribed fire training, herbicide use, plant monitoring, wildlife surveys, sustainable farming techniques, land preservation techniques, field safety, scientific research, art in the natural world, career development and professional networking. Collectively, these skills give each participant a strong understanding of the field of conservation and serve as a springboard for a professional career in the field of conservation. Program outcomes were measured by a series of check-ins, surveys, blog posts and skill tests throughout the entirety of the program. CLIP students who entered the program with virtually no experience in the field of conservation, graduated the program feeling comfortable navigating the field as a professional. Graduates reported feelings of increased confidence, a strong understanding of the field of conservation and the ability to continue their journey in this profession. In this workshop, learn about how you too can invest in the future of conservation by implementing CLIP at your organization.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E12: Rethinking Farmland and Housing Ownership Through an Equity and Justice Lens
There has been much discussion of and consternation at the statistics regarding the loss of farmland by Black farmers. In 1910, Black farmers owned approximately 16 million acres of farmland in the US, but as of the 2017 Census of Agriculture, farmers who are Black, Indigenous, and people of color owned less than 3 million acres. This is the result of devastating and systemic racial discrimination, including Jim Crow laws and lynchings forcing migration, lack of access to capital and credit due to USDA discrimination, the theft of land held as heirs’ property, and corruption by the legal system. We must make amends.
At the same time, American Farmland Trust tells us that there are 370 million acres of land changing hands in the next two decades. While much of that land will be passed on via inheritance, speculation by developers, private investors and corporate agribusiness is driving up land prices and creating more barriers to land access for new and beginning farmers and farmers of color.
A group of farmer activists decided to act at this critical juncture with the goals of helping underrepresented communities get access to rural land, supporting urban growers, and protecting the earth from the ravages of agribusiness. We began by blending the traditions from conservation land trust and community land trust worlds to create a hybrid called an “Agrarian Commons.” Agrarian Trust acts as an ally, providing fundraising, legal and other support for local partner organizations, many of which are engaged in their own liberatory activities through farming. In both urban and rural contexts, local projects are working to promote food sovereignty, preserve ecologically stewarded farmland in perpetuity, and provide affordable, long-term land tenure to farmers who face barriers to land access. Agrarian Trust continues to learn from our partners as we change and grow and strive to be better allies.
Panel participants will hear inspiring stories of this hybrid land trust organization’s transformative journey, and what we and our local project leaders have learned as we make the crucial leap from theory to practice. You will hear what we are grappling with legally and ethically in order to support the sovereignty of local communities. Most importantly, participants will learn what this effort looks like on the ground, from a farmer and member of the board of the Central Virginia Agrarian Commons. Panelists include Agrarian Trust staff, Agrarian Commons board members, a farmer, and attorneys helping develop and refine legal tools.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E13: Coastal Land Protection: New NOAA Infrastructure Funding for CELCP
In 2021, Congress provided up to $284 million in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) for coastal and estuarine protection, including for land conservation through NOAA’s Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation Program (CELCP - pronounced “kelp”). NOAA announced a portion of these funds in summer 2022 and we expect another round in early 2023, with more funding rounds planned. Attendees will learn about this new coastal land protection funding opportunity: How the funds have been distributed to date, lessons learned to date, how to prepare for the next funding rounds and what makes a successful CELCP project. In its previous iteration, CELCP funding was an important source of matching funding for land trust priorities in coastal areas, ensuring permanent protection of more than 110,000 acres from 2002-2019. This new infusion of IIJA funds into the CELCP program is a renewed conservation tool that will support additional coastal and estuarine protection in priority conservation areas. Discussion will include reflections on a project on the central Oregon coast, where a regional land trust, a federally recognized tribe, county planners and state agency staff collaborated on the acquisition of an ecologically and culturally important headland.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E14: Are You Ready for an Audit?
Some common questions that come up for land trust are “Do we need and audit?”, “What do we do when a funder says we need a “Single Audit?”, “Why are there so many questions on the 990 that do not relate to our financial information?”. In this session, we will talk about different levels of assurance (audit, review, etc.), getting ready for financial statement audits and Single Audits, and some key areas to focus on for your information returns. Audits do not need to be scary and with a little planning and work to set things up right, you can plan for a smooth audit process.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E15: Reinventing How to Board
This workshop is intended for board members and executive directors to focus on on creating an effective board. We'll start with a brief look at the current nonprofit board model and how we got here,including the basic legal requirements and some of the adverse consequences of this legacy. Then, in peer-to-peer groups and full-group conversation, we’ll do some reflection and reinvention. What’s working or not working about your board’s role? How could you increase the effectiveness and engagement of your board team, to improve performance and make board service more meaningful and satisfying for board leaders and more helpful for your organization? What do nonprofits – particularly nonprofits with professional staff – need from their boards today? Come prepared to share some of your positive and challenging board experiences for peer problem-solving and co-creating some different ways to “board”!
Board_Timeline of the American Nonprofit Board v2
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E16. Lawyering Up: Considerations when Selecting and Working with Outside Counsel
Land trusts face myriad issues that require legal advice. Whether drafting conservation easements, preparing board resolutions, reviewing contracts, or defending property boundaries and easement terms, having the support of competent counsel is critical to success. However, most land trusts do not employ in-house counsel and therefore must turn to outside attorneys. This workshop covers when land trusts should consider using outside legal counsel, what experience they should look for in a candidate, and how they should work with selected outside counsel, as well as what expectations attorneys often have for their land trust clients. The panel is composed of both attorneys and land trust board members who will share their experience and expertise in addressing legal needs common among land trusts.
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Rally2023_E16_Part II from LTA Litigation Practical Pointers Publication (3-15-2013)
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Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E17: Strategic Marketing: Refresh, Reconnect and Grow Members, Donors and Supporters
Maintaining and growing relationships with members, donors, supporters and the community can be a challenge. You’re not alone if you have had to set aside long-standing strategies and test out lots of new methods and ideas to stay connected in recent years. Use all that you’ve learned about what works (and what doesn’t) to create a powerful, effective marketing plan to help your land trust grow membership, participation and support. This session uses the process of creating a strategic marketing plan to integrate your lessons learned with the best practices of marketing and outreach – resulting in a plan, messages and strategies that reach, connect with and engage audiences and reach your goals. Whether your land trust wants to stay connected with long-time supporters, while also reaching a younger, more diverse audience, or attract more members, this workshop provides the steps, tools and templates you need to get started. And we’ll highlight land trust staff and examples to inspire and talk through the real work of refreshing and implementing your marketing efforts.
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Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
E18: Basic Bequest Administration…and Beyond
Bequests can be an important contributor to a land trust’s fiscal health. This is a non-lawyer’s practical guide to handling bequests, particularly problematic ones, to ensure that land trusts of all sizes do not leave bequest dollars on the table. We’ll include what to ask for and when, what to do if you’re ignored, how to spot problems on accountings and tax returns, including avoiding income taxes, effectively collecting IRAs/life insurance/POD accounts, how to (politely) decline a request to return your bequest, when to join in/sit out litigation, with or without an attorney. We’ll include suggested letters and tax and probate forms.
Rally2023_E18_Basic Bequest Administration - FINAL OUTLINE FOR PRESENTATION
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
E19: Partnerships in Managing Lands for Climate Resilience
In July 2021, the Bootleg megafire burned across south-central Oregon, including 12,000 acres of The Nature Conservancy’s Sycan Marsh Preserve. For over two decades, Sycan has been a center for learning about how to safely restore the natural role of fire in our dry forests through ecological thinning and controlled burning with numerous tribal, academic and public agency partners. This session will introduce to the Conservancy’s Sycan Marsh Preserve as well as our partnerships and treatments to conserve biodiversity and restore the inherent resiliency of these dry forest and marshland ecosystems. We will dive into the story of the Bootleg megafire and the results from our partnership with the University of Washington to evaluate the effectiveness of pre-wildfire treatments. Excitingly, preliminary results support the direct observations of our frontline fire personnel during Bootleg and indicate that, even under extreme fire weather conditions, wildfire severity was moderated in areas that had received controlled burning, either in combination with ecological thinning or alone, prior to the Bootleg Fire. Treatments to reduce fuels also allowed firefighters more and safer options to conduct effective fire suppression efforts. These hopeful results are relevant to land trusts and public land managers across the West and anyone who cares about conserving the resilience and biodiversity of our western forests in an era of fire.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F01: Maximizing Forest Carbon Benefits of Land Protection: Decoding the Black Box of Carbon Data
Land trusts have a major role to play in addressing the climate crisis. Across the U.S. there are carbon-rich forests that are vulnerable to development, wildfire and a host of other threats. These lands must be protected. This session will explore how land trusts can effectively and efficiently identify these carbon-rich landscapes and then evaluate, at the parcel level, the carbon impact of conservation – now and into the future. Presenters will teach attendees how to navigate existing datasets and two publicly available online tools that can be used to create sophisticated carbon data analyses for any parcel or region in the lower 48 states. Presenters will also highlight use cases and examples of easement terms and management plan guidelines that can be used to improve carbon storage and sequestration. Lastly, we will discuss how carbon data can help build successful applications for new federal funds, including the $700 million Forest Legacy program. This session will be highly interactive and feedback from attendees will help shape future data and tool development being led by a host of national NGOs and the USFS. Note that this session is meant to support advancing forest carbon goals outside of carbon markets and will not discuss market trends.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F02: Forged in Fire: Collaborating for Wildfire Recovery and Resilience
The Sonoma Valley Wildlands Collaborative is a partnership between state, county and nonprofit land management organizations, working to improve wildfire resilience across 18,000 acres of public and private lands. Formed after the 2017 North Bay wildfires, our work is focused on fuel management and forest resilience projects, but the magic is the model of partnership. Built on consensus decision-making and a Memorandum of Agreement, the partnership provides opportunities for larger and more flexible funding streams, improved coordination and stakeholder engagement and resource sharing. Sonoma Land Trust is a member of the Collaborative, and acts as administrative lead on grant procurement and management. Since inception, we have received $3 million in state and foundation grants, and sped up the pace and scale of work in the region through coordination and capacity building. The flexibility of the land trust structure, in particular the ability to provide innovative financial and contract arrangements, allows this partnership to be more productive together than each of us can be on our own. The Collaborative is focused around wildfire recovery and resilience, but the structure and lessons from this session can be adapted and applied to conservation land challenges in any region or ecosystem.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F03: Conservation Easement Stewardship Roundtable
We’re at it again! The Conservation Easement Stewardship Roundtable is returning for its 13th iteration at Rally! This session is ideal for conservation easement stewardship staff and experienced volunteers. Via peer-to-peer, lightly structured discussion, this session provides key opportunities to network with colleagues across the country, discuss pressing and emerging issues for stewardship, and introduce further engagement with stewardship practitioners via The Resource Center resources and online forums. Bring troubling questions for objective feedback as well as success stories to provide examples to colleagues! Themes covered may include climate change resiliency, diversity and inclusion, technology options, recordkeeping challenges, landowner relationships, second- and third- generation landowner issues, violations across the spectrum, staffing and organizational challenges and new monitoring ideas.
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Practical Pointers for Stewardship Staff
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action-steps-land-trusts-can-take-when-faced-with-an-encroachment
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F04: ‘Water’ We Talking About? Communicating to the Public About Land, Water and Climate
Land conservation and strengthening our working lands play an important role in protecting water quality, storing greenhouse gas emissions, and establishing climate-resilient communities. As trusted messengers, it’s important that we equip land trusts and watershed groups with tools to effectively communicate about the climate crisis and how local land management is a critical solution. The Water Hub will present the latest national polling on climate change and water from its summer 2023 public opinion research. We’ll share the best practices for talking to different audiences about climate change and provide the most compelling conservation messages. Potomac Conservancy will share key lessons learned from Rising to the Challenge, an online report series that was informed by local climate research, audience attitudes and message best practices. We’ll share examples from our pre-release audience assessment questionnaire and message development.Short and fun interactive opportunities will be incorporated throughout the session before concluding with breakout groups by region that will get land professionals thinking about their own audiences, local messages and engagement tactics.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F05: Lessons Learned from Navigating Partnerships and Achieving Outcomes in NRCS’ RCPP
Regional. Conservation. Partnership. Program. Each of those four words serve parallel roles when implementing a USDA-NRCS RCPP. However, "Partnership" takes on a new meaning with Farm Bill 2018 RCPPs. Milwaukee Metropolitan Sewerage District and The Conservation Fund will discuss their lessons learned and what it takes to implement an $18 million RCPP in Southeastern Wisconsin. The session will review our mistakes and adaptations with implementing entity-held easements (yes, we have acquired easements!), and land management (obligated >$1.4 million in two years!), land rental (the hidden gem), outreach, education, research, staffing, funding and how we support our partners to achieve outcomes. Throughout the session, we will open the discussion to all attendees to describe their road blocks, mistakes, adaptations, lessons learned and to bring their issues to the group for insight and guidance... taking "Partnership" to another level at Rally.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F06: To Litigate or Not to Litigate – When That is the Question
This session will cover a number of questions, including: what should land trusts think about when considering litigation; pros, cons and alternatives to litigation such as mediation; how does Terrafirma factor into your decision; and how to minimize the likelihood that you’ll need to engage in litigation?
F06 To Litigate or Not to Litigate When That is the Question 9.11.23
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
CLE: CLE
F07: Every Easement, Everywhere, All at Once…
The year is 2053, and land trusts everywhere are grappling with the legacy of conservation easements negotiated in 2023 when our grantor-landowners lived on ranches and farms that had been handed down through the generations. They trusted us to help them steward their lands and we counted on their support of our shared vision. In 2053, we now have a new generation of landowners who live in Los Angeles or New York City. They are smart, savvy, know their way around legal documents and are used to getting what they want. Their only exposure to conservation easements was a passing reference in some random streaming western called “Yellowstone.” The Rally Players will take you back in time to when the tax deductions flowed, the ranchers did business with a handshake and a promise and we could get away with vaguely worded conservation easements because we knew our landowner was “conservation-minded.” We’ll show you how, as people and conditions change, conservation easement language gets interpreted, misinterpreted, ignored and even litigated, to create unintended legacies for land trusts. If we knew then what we know now, could we set history/events/the future on a different path?
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F08: Working with Religious Groups and other Nonprofit Landowners
This session will detail a decades-long working relationship with the Religious Lands Roundtable group in Kentucky. This group was primarily comprised of three sects of sisters at three separate Motherhouses owning over 2,500 acres of land: Loretto Motherhouse, St. Catharine Farm and Sisters of Nazareth. These groups worked for years to determine which organization was the best fit, whether a conservation easement in perpetuity was right for their perpetual nature of the Motherhouse lands upon which their historic Motherhouse structures existed, and how to incorporate their visions for the future conservation practices and community engagement they intended to implement on their lands. This session will highlight the reciprocal nature of our educational relationship and the two wonderful projects that resulted after many, many years of negotiations with their international leadership groups within the Catholic Church. We will share the challenges when dealing with large not-for-profit organizations and the incredible benefits of protecting land that has a long history of conservation combined with a very progressive future vision for those lands. We will also detail how we were able to work through the many levels of decision-makers within these organizations to finally make it to the finish line with two of our most thoughtful and dynamic conservation easements in our 159-easement portfolio, as well as what happened to the land owned by one group of sisters who ultimately decided to sell their land to a farmer without protecting it a conservation easement.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F09: COVID, Climate, Crisis: Working Lands and Gardens Bolster Food Systems
The Chicago region's ready access to land, water and infrastructure is increasingly important as the climate crisis reshapes where and how food is grown, how community conservation is practiced and how our working lands are managed and protected. But this region is hampered by legacies of racism, disinvestment and political prioritizing of global economic models over local sustainability. Using the Chicago Region Food System Fund as a case study, we'll explore: How can a collaborative and concentrated response to a systemic shock lead to expanding and understanding of who is part of a food system- particularly across urban/rural, land use, and community divides? How can local communities be better prepared to address challenges to produce food, protect soil and water, and leverage government funding opportunities? How can land trusts apply COVID-19 lessons to the ongoing and increasing calamity of climate change and its profound reshaping of how our food is produced, distributed and consumed to be more ecologically sustainable and racially just? This workshop will be highly interactive with the presenters giving context, posing questions and facilitating group discussion. Participants should be motivated to experiment, brainstorm and take risks.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F10: Rematriating Land Through the Commons
This workshop has been cancelled. This session will have a focus on the commons model, Indigenous collective stewardship and ownership of land, and regenerative agriculture. By creating Agrarian Commons throughout the US, which are a hybrid model of community and conservation land trust to hold farmland and housing, we are addressing the realities of farmland owner demographics, wealth disparities in the US, results of historic and present racial injustice, farm viability, the high price of land, and the impact on all who are excluded and marginalized from land and food. Each Commons permanently removes agricultural land from the commodity market, so it never risks being sold to the highest bidder. Affordable long-term leases allow farmers to have secure land tenure, helping farmers cultivate the security and financial viability to invest in farm infrastructure and long-term stewardship. Commons are structured in a way that ensures local stewardship and governance of land and keeps land in the hands of the community closest to it, including those farming. Participants will learn about the Black Swamp project and how the innovative Commons model works. Panelists are land conservationists, farmers, and the Indigenous people leading the project. Attendees will hear inspiring stories of the transformation that is occurring around the country because of this new way of being in relationship to land and learn ways to be participants in the movement.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F11: EPA’s State Revolving Funds and 319 NPS Management Program: Funding Sources for Protecting Land
This session will highlight three programs within the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Water that can be used for financing land conservation projects. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (SRFs) are federal-state partnerships that provides states, tribes, territories and communities low-cost financing for a wide range of projects that result in the protection or restoration of surface water. Land conservation projects are eligible for funding because they protect the quality of water sources and lessen the need for wastewater treatment through traditional methods. In this workshop, EPA will provide an overview of the SRFs, discuss borrower and project eligibilities for land purchases, and provide case study examples. Under EPA’s Clean Water Act Section (§) 319 Nonpoint Source Management grant program, EPA works with partners to address water pollution and to protect and restore waterbodies by managing the areas of land draining to them in a watershed approach. EPA will discuss this program and how to access funds through the development of a watershed plan. Lastly, this session will discuss the funding available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). With the injection of $43 billion over the next five years, the SRFs have the opportunity to dramatically increase financing for eligible projects including land conservation and other nature-based solutions. This session will provide a break-down of the portion of BIL water infrastructure dollars that will flow through the SRFs and which can be used for land conservation and to assist disadvantaged communities.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F12: End and Beginning of an Era: Replacing a Founding or Long-Time ED
Every year, thousands of nonprofit boards face the daunting task of hiring a successor to replace the seemingly irreplaceable: the long-serving or founding Executive Director. This process can produce anxiety for staff and boards, but it doesn't have to! In this session, you'll hear the experiences of 3 Executive Directors who replaced founders in their organizations. They'll share the triumphs, trials and tribulations from their experiences and challenge attendees to make their own transitions the best they can be.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F13: Get Ready for your Renewal of Accreditation
Knowledge is power! Bring your curiosity and your questions to this introduction of the accreditation renewal process. Participants will receive an overview of the renewal process and timing, how to get help and information throughout the process and how and when to start preparing for your renewal application. Participants will eave confident about preparing, organizing and uploading application documents for review.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F14: Creating a Culture of Philanthropy
Peter Drucker said that culture eats strategy for breakfast. Look at any struggling fundraising program and you can see that directly. Good plans without strong culture lead to limited action, leading further to paltry results. Despite the best possible fundraising strategy, successful fundraising is an attitude challenge, and the barriers are mostly about culture. This workshop will examine the issues of organizational culture that prevent successful fundraising. It will engage the participants to help them understand their fundraising challenges and begin reshaping their organizational culture to support a stronger, more effective fundraising program.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F15: How Bricks and Mortar Can Deepen Community Connections
Many land trusts have started to think strategically about how facilities can help achieve their mission and build on their success with land conservation. A facility is an opportunity for a land trust to engage their community in meaningful discussions on approaches to address climate change, reconnect a community with its key natural assets like a water body and bring diverse elements of a community together in a common shared story. Financing an ambitious building requires different fundraising skills, sources of capital and a lengthier planning process than the typical land conservation project. This workshop will look at two compelling case studies from the Galveston Bay Foundation and the San Diego River Park Foundation in their quest to build facilities that reconnect their communities with their namesake water bodies. Both Living Building Change Standards and LEED Green Build certification will be explored as climate change strategies. Participants will complete an assessment of their own organizations readiness to think about a facility and consider if they have the fundraising prerequisites before starting the process. Participants will walk away with overview of timeline for planning and fundraising for facility that they can adapt to meet their needs.
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
F16: Is Your Land Trust Climate-Smart? Building Climate Resilience into Land Conservation through the Power of Partnership
Land trusts across the United States are experiencing and dealing with the effects of climate change to conserved lands, including catastrophic flooding, increased wildfire risk, sea level rise, extreme heat waves, and prolonged periods of drought. Land trusts are on the front lines of responding to climate impacts on their conserved lands and are well-positioned to increase their climate-smart conservation work. This session explores methods land trusts can utilize to identify, prioritize and incorporate tangible climate resilience benefits into our collective conservation efforts. As a case study, this session will highlight the challenges and opportunities with the Mountain Meadows Conservation Project in California: a two phase innovative climate-smart effort that is resulting in the permanent protection and restoration of a significant portion of the largest wet meadow in the northern Sierra Nevada at the headwaters of one of the most important rivers in California. Through a partnership of the Feather River Land Trust, the Trust for Public Land, Point Blue Conservation Science, Plumas Corporation and Sierra Pacific Industries, the innovative and collaborative efforts here will serve as a model and catalyst demonstrating how cattle ranching, habitat conservation and enhancement, water resource management and community engagement can align to create a more climate resilient landscape. You are encouraged to come to this session with your own experiences, challenges and ideas to share and collaborate on!
Session Location: Oregon Convention Center
Closing Reception at Grand Central Bowl
Join us for a fun evening at Grand Central Bowl to close out Rally. If bowling isn't up your alley, visit the game room for shuffleboard, classic arcade games and pinball. Bowling, shoe rental, appetizers and two complimentary drink tickets provided. Pre-registration and additional fee required. This event is approximately one mile from the convention center and is accessible via public transportation.
Price: $50
Working Lands Protection Happy Hour
Oregon Agricultural Trust, Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, and Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts welcome all those who are engaged in or passionate about protecting agricultural and forestry lands to join us for happy hour. It will be from 5:30-8:30pm on Saturday, September 9 - the last evening of Rally. We'll have a private room, appetizers, and a no-host bar at Rogue Eastside Pub & Pilot Brewery on 928 SE 9th Ave, Portland - just across the street from the closing reception if you want to attend both. The location is a 26-minute flat walk from the Oregon Convention Center, a 5 minute drive, or a 4 minute ride with a brief walk on the A loop streetcar from the Oregon Convention Center 3 stops to SE MLK & Morrison. Once you get off at Morrison, walk East 5 blocks to 9th Ave. We hope to see you there!