Land Trust Alliance Blog: What is Community Conservation?

There are many different visions and thoughts on community, and I found this Land Trust Alliance article on community conservation to be especially helpful to our Bur Oak Land Trust conservation work. As we continue our own conservation work, we can work toward a clearer vision of community. Here are excerpts of their article:

What is Community Conservation?

It’s an approach to land conservation that includes more people. Community conservation begins by listening to many different voices in the community — then responding. Community conservation uses the strengths of the land trust to meet needs expressed by people in the community. There are a wide range of community conservation projects. Here’s what most of them have in common. They:

Respond to a community need
Connect people with place
Connect people with people
Create opportunities for people to get involved
Energize the community
Provide some form of public access
Broaden the land trust’s reach
Provide lasting and meaningful impact

Broadening Support for Conservation

Everyone deserves to live in a healthy community and enjoy a connection with nature. When land trusts include more people, we improve more lives — and in turn, we gain broader support for conservation.

We’re going to need that support. The U.S. population is expected to grow by 100 million people in 50 years — which means we’ll face more pressure to develop land. The population is also growing more diverse — so land trusts need to serve diverse constituents to stay relevant. On top of those demographic changes, today, many Americans are growing up without a strong connection to nature — and if they don’t learn to love it, they won’t act to save it.

To keep saving land, we need people who care about the land. We need their energy and passion. We also need their political support. Ultimately, people make the laws. So, if most people don’t care about conservation, the laws that support it will change — and our legacy could be lost.

What Community Conservation Is Not

In some ways, community conservation is different from traditional land trust projects — so there can be some confusion about what it means. Lets clear some of that up. Community conservation is:

Not primarily driven by scenic or ecological concerns
Not primarily focused on the landowner
Not about serving every community need at once
Not limited to any one group in your community
Not about having more meetings
Not necessarily more complicated or time-consuming

Originally published on the LTA blog