LTA Accreditation Program

As you may know, the Land Trust Alliance is national convener, strategist and representative of more than 1,600 land trusts across America.

The Land Trust Alliance has as its goals to:

• Dramatically expand the pace of land conservation (through tax incentives);
• Build strong land trusts;
• Defend the permanence of conservation easements; and
• Ensure that the work of land trusts is as strategically directed as possible.

The Land Trust Alliance is best known for having pioneered the use of conservation easements to conserve private land and for the development of Land Trust Standards and Practices, the guidelines for ethical performance by land trusts. The Green River Valley Land Trust is a member of the Land Trust Alliance.

Recently, the Land Trust Alliance created an Accreditation Commission which selected 22 land conservation organizations from 19 states to test a new national land trust accreditation program. The new land trust accreditation program will recognize land trusts that meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever.

You may be aware that the GRVLT was selected to participate and has completed the Pilot Accreditation application process. Our application is now under review.

The GRVLT sees accreditation as an important step in ensuring the GRVLT's accountability to the public in working with landowners to complete strong and lasting land conservation efforts.

As part of the application process, the Land Trust Accreditation Commission will accept signed, written comments from the public on pending applications. Comments must relate to the GRVLT's compliance with accreditation indicator practices. These practices address the ethical and technical operation of a land trust. View the full list of indicator practices.

To learn more about the accreditation program and/or to submit a signed, written comment on the GRVLT's application, visit the accreditation program website. Comments may also be faxed or mailed to the Land Trust Accreditation Commission:

ATTN: Public Comments
Fax: 518-587-3183
Mail: 112 Spring Street, Suite 204
Saratoga Springs, NY 12866

Comments on the GRVLT's application will be most useful by July 1, 2007.