"California voters have approved close to $10 billion in conservation and water bonds since 2000, and it is our responsibility to ensure that these funds are spent wisely," Graham Chisholm said in a speech before the annual gathering of the Land Trust Alliance, which provides resources, leadership and training to more than 1,200 nonprofit land trusts across the nation.

"We must set high standards for ourselves or risk losing the confidence that Californians have placed in both the public funding process and in the conservation movement as a whole."

Chisholm identified three challenges for the conservation community to collectively address in coming months, and he pledged the Conservancy’s support.

• To articulate a clear vision for selecting the most important sites to protect in California;

• To ensure that conservation transactions measure up against three key criteria: protection of the property’s biological qualities, additional public benefit, and fair price;

To ensure public agencies have the necessary tools—appropriate institutions, funding and comprehensive management plans—to steward California's public lands in the long term.