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Home News Newsletters Fall 2007

Newsletters

Fall 2007

The Texas Land Trust Council (TLTC) is pleased to present an update on the "Top 5" initiatives of the organization. As our former board chair Valarie Bristol says, "A dollar invested in TLTC and its programs is a dollar that multiplies many times over in land conservation." It is the goal of the Texas Land Trust Council to consistently leverage your support. We do that through our traditional services-education and training, publications, standards and practices implementation, etc. We also leverage our position as a statewide organization, to advocate for land use laws and reforms that will help our statewide land trust organizations to be more effective in their mission-to protect the land and natural resource heritage of our great state.

Advocacy

Over the last year, TLTC has been working with both state and federal lawmakers. TLTC is working for passage of H.R.1576 & S.469 that is legislation to permanently extend the tax incentive for donations of conservation easements, and testified during the 80th Texas Legislative session, to ensure that attempts to manipulate the 1983 Tx Natural Resource Code were not successful. TLTC works closely with the Land Trust Alliance to get information about policy changes to landowners, and continues to serve as an advocate for land trusts with foundations, corporations and the public.

Education and Training

TLTC continues to provide a wide range of services to assist land trusts as they expand their organizational and stewardship capacities. In the last year, TLTC has provided technical assistance to landowners, advisors, governments and the public through an annual statewide land trust conference in January 2007. The conference had three days of focused training: 18 concurrent workshops, three full and half-day seminars, field trips and guest speakers including State Senator Kirk Watson. The conference had 285 participants from across the state and nation. The next annual statewide land trust conference is scheduled for February 21-23, 2008, in Austin, Texas.

Standards and Practices

The primary focus of the Texas Land Trust Council is to assist in the growth and development of statewide and local land trusts so that they can provide effective and sustainable land conservation to the communities that they serve. Towards this end, TLTC has been providing "guided organizational assessments" for land trusts to help them implement the nationally recognized and established Land Trust Standards & Practices and, ultimately, so that they may apply for national accreditation. A total of seven Texas land trusts have completed guided assessments with TLTC in preparation for the accreditation process, most recently Gulf Coast Bird Observatory and the Galveston Bay Foundation. The Texas Land Trust Council's Excellence Program - which provides this critical service - is currently sustained by a three-year $250,000 grant from the Houston Endowment. Through this generous funding, TLTC provides assistance to organizations operating in the greater Houston area to build their organizational and conservation skills to better conserve land and water in their region.

Publications and Resources

Our web site www.texaslandtrustcouncil.org continues to improve and expand. We recently added a "clickable by county" map on the site, which allows a visitor to search for land trusts in or around a specific county. The web site also provides a land trust directory, news pages, recent conservation stories and events from around the state, publications and resources like the "Standards & Practices" Electronic Bulletin, the Conservation Easement Handbook, and online annual conference registration. TLTC also conducted an annual inventory of conserved lands in the state-in 2007 we are at a total of 1,080,000 acres!

Building a Conservation Network

The Texas Land Trust Council is a signature conservation services center. We serve as a clearinghouse for conservation information across the state, providing the 48 state and local land trusts in Texas with information about conservation efforts nationwide. Our goal is to constantly enhance communication. As part of this goal, TLTC has been working to create a network of land and water trusts in the state, to enable information exchange and sharing of best practices. TLTC has also been working closely with the Land Trust Alliance and other states' land trust service centers to promote Texas' needs and seek support for land conservation work in Texas.

The Texas Land Trust Council: Continuing to Build Capacity for Conservation in Texas

As the hub of the wheel from which the state's diverse land and water trusts radiate, the Texas Land Trust Council serves organizations-the biggest and the smallest, the oldest and the newest, urban and rural, whatever the status and sophistication of the trust organization-with the goal of strengthening and broadening the conservation movement in Texas. TLTC has quality staff and a board dedicated to growing the conservation business in Texas. In addition to the initiatives detailed above, TLTC will:

• Launch an online "business directory" in October of 2007.

  This directory will include listings for businesses that support land trusts, landowners and governments. TLTC will provide a subscription service for this directory to attorneys, appraisers, grant writers/fundraisers, environmental consulting firms, private biologists, range managers, planners, accountants, estate planners, tax consultants, etc., who want to get their work and their companies known to land trusts and landowners interested in conservation.

• Debut the latest update of the "Conservation Easements: A Guide for Texas Landowners" handbook in early 2008

  with 20,000 copies to be distributed in Texas and across the nation.

• Host "Taking Pride in Texas: Conservation at Work in Your Community" -TLTC's 11th annual statewide land trust conference. The conference is scheduled from February 21st-23rd, 2008, at the Austin Marriott South.

  Join 300 participants and participate in field trips, full and half-day seminars, 18 concurrent workshops, plenary sessions, and networking opportunities.

Thank you for supporting the Texas Land Trust Council!

For additional information, please contact:

Carolyn Vogel, Executive Director
Texas Land Trust Council
1305 San Antonio Street, Austin, TX 78701
Ph: 512-236-0655
cvogel@texaslandtrustcouncil.org
www.texaslandtrustcouncil.org