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Sign up for our Action Network or Connecticut Land Conservation Council Email Newsletter More CLCC Pages CLCC Home Page More Success Stories 2008 Legislative Agenda  2008 Conference Summary Face of Connecticut Campaign

The CT Land Conservation Council (CLCC) and the Farmington Land Trust co-hosted a regional land trust gathering on the evening of May 21st, 2008.  Charlie and Joan Leach were gracious hosts, offering the use of their home for the gathering.  Kevin Case and Sarah Pellegrino represented the Land Trust Alliance and CLCC, respectively, and were joined by over 20 representatives from the Farmington, Canton, Avon, Burlington, Simsbury and Berlin Land Trusts.  
 
The goal of the gathering was to make people more familiar with the services of CLCC as well as giving them an opportunity to meet their land trust neighbors, learn about each other's work and identify areas where the trusts may be able to collaborate and work together.  The evening started with introductions from each group, including a short synopsis of their organization, the type of conservation work they have been doing and the role they play in their communities.
 
The conversation easily and organically steered towards how the trusts could work together on various initiatives, understanding that while they all had many things in common, none all of the groups were exactly alike and some faced unique challenges in regards to community involvement, land protection projects and access to funding.
 
A few ideas that surfaced included focusing on geographic characteristics shared by many of the groups as a region and facilitating a larger view of natural resources, such as the Farmington River and the Metacomet Trail.  One proposal was a jointly hosting a "land trust day", whereby members from all the land trusts were invited to take walks on properties owned by trusts other than their own, thereby promoting all the trusts with the same event.
 
In regards to organizational needs and challenges, there was some discussion about staffing and the idea that maybe the land trusts could share costs of staff and consultants, whereby all benefit but none shoulder the financial burden alone.
 
At the end of the evening, it was decided the group would very much like to get together again, with CLCC facilitating and assisting at various points along the way.

Thanks are due to Charlie and Joan Leach for hosting the event at their home, to the Farmington Land Trust for organizing the evening and to all the land trust representatives who made the trip and set aside their time to be with us.
 
If your land trust would be interested in co-hosting a regional gathering with CLCC, please be in touch with Sarah Pellegrino at spellegrino@tnc.org.

Nature picture credits (top to bottom, left to right): Photo © Rick Newton (Bird-foot's Trefoil, Lotus corniculatus).