Printer-friendlyEnvironment DEC
From the May 2008 issue
State Conservation Partnership Program and Land Trust Grants
DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis and Executive Deputy Commissioner Stuart Gruskin welcome Denise Schlener, National Director for Land Trust Alliance. Schlener praised DEC's investment in land conservation
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and the Land Trust Alliance announced 52 grants totaling $825,000 to 40 local and regional land-trust organizations across New York State. This year's land-trust grant awards represent an unprecedented investment in New York's land trusts that will help make the state's communities better places to live and work. DEC Commissioner Pete Grannis said, "The success of this partnership is reflected by the record $1.575 million set aside for the program in this year's state budget. Further, the growth shows that the conservation program strikes a chord with communities around the state."
Conservation Partnership Program
The land-trust grants are administered through the New York State Conservation Partnership Program (NYSCPP), a pioneering public-private initiative administered by the Land Trust Alliance and overseen by DEC. The NYSCPP helps land trusts create new nature preserves and save environmentally important lands, including wildlife habitat, sensitive watersheds, wetlands and aquifer recharge areas, and working farms and forests across the state. The grants will allow local community-based organizations to do more in conserving natural areas and important open space in their communities.
Since 2002, the NYSCPP has provided a total of $3 million for technical assistance and funding for more than 200 competitive grants to 64 different land trusts serving rural, suburban and urban communities in more than 30 counties across the state. To date, the land-trust grants also have leveraged more than $9 million in privately raised conservation funds, directly leading to protection of nearly 10,000 additional acres of important land through permanent conservation easements and fee acquisitions.
Land Trust Alliance
Founded in 1982 and headquartered in Washington D.C., the Land Trust Alliance works in support of more than 1,660 land trusts nationwide, including 90 New York land trusts representing more than 36,000 individual members. Working with state and local governments, local, regional and national land trusts have protected more than one million acres of land in New York State and more than 36 million acres nationwide.
For information about the Land Trust Alliance and New York Conservation Partnership Program, please visit the Land Trust Alliance's website, call Ethan Winter, New York Conservation Manager, at 518-587-0774, or send an e-mail to him: ewinter@lta.org.
