SUMMIT LAND CONSERVANCY

Summit Land Conservancy wants to ensure that lands and watersheds important to the community are permanently protected. In order to do this, we need to ensure residents and visitors of all ages celebrate and engage in conservation values and appreciation of the outdoors. In order to be most effective, we need to show professionalism and success to ensure a place as a trusted leader and valued partner in the community, and a continuation of our programs and services via sustainable financial strength.

In order keep open space at the heart of our community, we must develop and maintain strong relationships with volunteers, landowners, donors, and local governments. By maintaining systems that ensure ethical, effective, and high quality conservation, we can cultivate key relationships and partnerships to strengthen our connection within the community.

When placing land in permanent conservation easements, we must provide support to landowners on their protected properties through professional stewardship, helping with enhancements and restoration projects as necessary.

We also focus on community conservation.

“Everyone deserves to live in a healthy community and enjoy a connection with nature. When land trusts include more people, we improve more lives — and in turn, we gain broader support for conservation.”

-- Land Trust Alliance

Community conservation has the following benefits:
´Responds to a community need
´Connects people with place
´Connects people with people
´Creates opportunities for people to get involved
´Energizes the community
´Provides some form of public access
´Provides lasting and meaningful impact

In order to make sure conservation happens, we focus on fun and events that connect people directly to our mission of protected open space. We recruit a diverse group of volunteers, committee members & board members with clear intent to advance our goals and the health of the organization. We ensure professional capabilities via a focus on employee development and a positive working environment.

We have been re-accredited by the Land Trust Alliance; re-accreditation was smooth and supported by effective board procedures.

Donor retention and new donor attraction are analyzed annually; we are working toward more effective interactions with mid-range donors.

We have doubled our protected acres and our rate of conservation in the last few years. We have several large and inventive programs that we are working on, and are encouraged by the landowners contacting us for assistance. We have also developed an additional conservation and funding strategy of attracting targeted conservation buyers to protect additional areas that would be otherwise out of our abilities.

Media and social media outreach shows that we are well known, effective at collaboration with other organizations, and hold interesting, fun, and educational events.