Recently, six of our staff members flew to New Orleans to join a gathering of passionate land conservation professionals from around the world.
The Land Trust Alliance is a national conservation organization with the mission of strengthening land conservation across the United States. It represents over 1,000 land trusts, one of which is Save Mount Diablo, and has more than 4.6 million members.
Land trusts have protected more than 61 million acres of land in the United States, an area larger than our national parks.
September 13 to 17 was the 35th Land Trust Alliance Rally—in the past it’s been held throughout the US, in places like Sacramento; Washington, D.C.; Portland; Nashville; and Denver, and now New Orleans. This is the largest gathering of conservation leaders in the nation.
Our staff took the opportunity to learn from the work of distinguished leaders like Ebonie Alexander. Ms. Alexander was presented with the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award during the conference for her work as the Executive Director of the Black Family Land Trust in North Carolina.
“Last week, we were grateful to be able to join more than 1,500 people from across the nation and globe all gathered in New Orleans for the 35th annual national land conservation conference, which is known as Rally and is put on by the Land Trust Alliance. I have attended Rally for 23 years in a row, and every year I am inspired and learn new ways to better protect land for the benefit of all,” said Ted Clement, Save Mount Diablo Executive Director.
Photo by Ted Clement
This year’s Rally offered several fantastic field trips as well as informative and lively workshops on
- addressing climate change
- administering conservation easements
- communicating successfully
- conserving working lands
- purchasing land
- engaging communities
- managing organizations
- securing support
- stewarding and restoring land
After attending educational sessions and networking events over the course of this multi-day conference, our staff are excited to apply what they’ve learned toward our work protecting the land on and around Mount Diablo and across the northern and central Diablo Range.
