2023 Schedule – Pacific Time

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.

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.

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.

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.    

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.

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.

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.