LAND CONSERVATION NEWS 8/8/14
Issue Number 243
Accreditation renewal reform: As a result of concerns about the time and cost of applying for
renewal of accreditation expressed by land trust service centers (including by the Georgia Land
Conservation Center), the Land Trust Alliance and the Land Trust Accreditation Commission
have decided on a process to evaluate and implement program improvements.
According to Rand Wentworth, President of the Alliance,
“The Commission hired a consultant to interview land trusts that have been through renewal,
and it held listening sessions with land trust executive directors and state associations. It will
also host a feedback session at Rally. The Commission and the Alliance will meet in August
and at Rally to evaluate the research and identify improvements to the online application
system, instructional materials, and accreditation process. We expect that many of these can
be implemented quickly and we are confident that these program improvements can help
reduce administrative costs. To provide capacity for this work, the Commission is deferring
some second round 2014 applications to 2015 and will accept fewer first-time applicants in
2015 than previous years.
“We recognize that some land trust concerns are about Land Trust Standards and Practices
rather than the accreditation process, so we will undertake a longer term process of revising
Land Trust Standards and Practices and integrating these changes into the accreditation
process. These standards were last revised ten years ago, so the Alliance is planning a public
participation process to get guidance from land trusts on potential changes. When the
standards are revised we will consider additional ways that we can improve the accreditation
process and the services that the Alliance provides to land trusts preparing for accreditation.
“Some have suggested that we could lessen the costs of renewal for land trusts by extending
the term between renewals. Based on feedback from land trusts and the early rounds of
renewal applications, we have determined that the first term of accreditation needs to remain
at five years. However, the Alliance and Commission will consider the length of subsequent
renewal terms as we revise the Land Trust Standards and Practices over the next few
years.”
Georgia Legacy – still no chair for the Joint Study Committee: The members of the Joint
Study Committee have been named (see Land Conservation News 7/14/14 for the list) but the
Governor has yet to appoint the chair. The legislation creating the Study Committee (SR 896)
sets the deadline for its work: “In the event the committee makes a report of its findings and
recommendations, with suggestions for proposed legislation, if any, such report shall be made on
or before December 1, 2014, at which time the committee shall stand abolished.”
Landowner’s Guide to Conservation Incentives to be updated: Steve Raper (GDNR, Wildlife
Resources Division) is updating the popular Landowner’s Guide to Conservation Incentives in
Georgia (see http://www.georgiawildlife.com/node/807). If you know of programs that should
be added to the new edition, mistakes in the old edition that should be corrected, or suggestions
in general, Steve can be contacted at steve.raper@dnr.state.ga.us or 404.242.4295.
1
Trying to identify priority sites for your conservation work? Mark Anderson and his
colleagues at The Nature Conservancy have published a paper “Estimating climate resilience for
conservation across geophysical settings” in Conservation Biology 28 (4): 1523-1739. While the
paper’s focus is on the northeastern US, it contains information about the analysis of sites
according to their resilience to climate change in comparison to traditional methods of
identifying priority sites. You can view the issue at:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/cobi.2014.28.issue-4/issuetoc
Georgia wildlife tags provide increased benefit for wildlife conservation: State law, which
took effect July 1, rolled back the cost of a wildlife license plate to $25 more than a standard
plate. Of that, $19 goes to help Georgia wildlife (for a renewal, $20 goes to wildlife
conservation). So you can now purchase an eagle, hummingbird, quail or trout tag with
confidence that most of the money will go to conservation rather that the general treasury.
Changes
Mary Ann Anderson is the new Communications Specialist at the Georgia Wildlife
Foundation. She can be reached at 770-787-7887.
Glenn Dowling has been named Executive Director of Georgia River Network, a river
advocacy organization, replacing April Ingle, who has gone into private practice. Glenn’s
background includes serving as City Manager of Hiawassee, Executive Vice President of
the Georgia Wildlife Federation and Chairman of the Board of the Flint Riverkeeper. He
can be reached at glenn@garivers.org
Dates
August 26: Registration for Rally 2014 closes. Go to www.lta.org/rally
August 28: Georgia Forestry Commission Forest Stewardship and Forest Legacy Steering
Committee meeting at the Charles Elliott Wildlife Center, Mansfield. The Committee
will be reviewing, commenting on and – presumably – endorsing submissions for Forest
Legacy funding in 2016. If you plan to attend, please notify Buford Sanders at:
bsanders@GFC.STATE.GA.US.
September 18-20: Rally 2014 – the National Land Conservation Conference –
Providence, Rhode Island.
October 30: Next meeting of the Georgia Land Conservation Council. The date may be
changed to early December. By that time, GEFA should have selected a new Land
Conservation Program Manager to replace Andrew Szwak, who recently moved to
Chicago.
2
Land Conservation News is a periodic communication produced by the Georgia Land
Conservation Center for land trust leaders and others who care about the future of open space in
Georgia. To subscribe or to contribute news items, please contact Hans Neuhauser at the Georgia
Land Conservation Center: 706-546-7507 or hans@galandcc.com
3