Last Friday, I volunteered at Kilt Farm in Longmont, CO, where my daughter is employed as a seasonal Greenhouse Manager and farmer. With temperatures exceeding 95 degrees, I spent the day getting my hands dirty—harvesting and coring greens, transplanting cabbage, seeding lettuce, weeding rows of beans, and more. It was incredibly hard work.

The experience gave me an appreciation for the intensive labor that goes into producing, harvesting, and distributing fresh, local, and organic vegetables.

It also gave me a firsthand insight into the havoc the climate crisis is wreaking on farmers.

Farmers in Colorado are dealing with extreme weather events, including record high heat, drought conditions one week, followed by damaging flooding from heavy rains the next. Water is scarce, and can be expensive. All this under the haze of smoke from not-so-distant wildfires ravaging farms and forests to the west.

Of course, many of these conditions are not unique to Colorado farmers. This week the CT Mirror published an excellent piece written by Jan Ellen Spiegel describing how climate change is impacting Connecticut farmers. It’s insightful and absolutely worth a read.

I left Colorado feeling incredibly proud of my daughter and her co-workers. They are not only farmers, but also young activists committed to righting the wrongs inflicted on our environment and making the world a cleaner, healthier, and better place for us all.

Thursday, August 5

1:00 - 2:00pm

Wednesday, August 11

12:30 - 2:00pm

 CLCC's new template library contains sample policies specific to Connecticut land trusts including those adopted pursuant to Standards and Practices.

This month's blog post, "Nature as a Right" comes from CLCC Sandy Breslin Conservation Fellow, Yaw Darko.

"Rectifying the gross disparities of access to green spaces that many low-income communities and communities of color face demands a transformation of seeing nature as a privilege to nature as a right..."

On Friday, July 23 the State Bond Commission, chaired by Governor Ned Lamont, unanimously voted to release bond funds to support a variety of DEEP projects and programs, including $7.5 million for open space acquisitions under the State Recreation and Natural Heritage Trust Program and $3 million for a new grant round under the Recreational Trails & Greenways Program.

Sharing your land trust's amazing news and photos has never been easier. CLICK HERE TO GET STARTED. We'll take care of the rest!

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Attention Land Trusts! Writing the Land is a year-long collaborative project between local land trusts and poets to help raise awareness for the preservation of land, ecosystems, and biodiversity the environmental and creative communities meant to promote and support the protection of lands.  

Learn how to participate here >>

The Lyman Allyn Art Museum has announced their Forest Dialogues Lecture Series. The event on August 15 highlights the art of land conservation with guest speakers from Old Lyme.

The Land Trust Alliance has put together a simple toolkit to assist land trusts in successfully advocating for passage of the Charitable Conservation Easement Program Integrity Act (S. 2256 / H.R. 4164). This bill will put a stop to fraudulent tax deductions -- safeguarding taxpayers and ensuring the continued viability and integrity of the federal conservation easement tax incentive program.

DEEP is asking residents to take bird feeders down and other precautionary measures in response to a mortality event occurring in parts of the United States among certain species of fledgling songbirds.

CT DEEP is hosting a workshop on Forest Instruction on Mapping and Photography on Your Phone on August 20, 2021. Registration is required for this in-person workshop.

Landowners interested in sustainably managing their woods to improve bird habitat are invited to register for an upcoming Bird-friendly Forestry training from Audubon Vermont and the Northeast Bird Habitat Conservation Initiative.

Native Plant Trust and The Nature Conservancy recently released Conserving Plant Diversity in New England, a comprehensive report and interactive mapping tool that sets goals for land protection to ensure plant diversity as the climate changes.

Registration is Open for 2021 Land Trust Alliance Virtual Rally, the annual gathering of land conservation practitioners from across the country, Highlights include group pricing, over 60 workshops, access to recordings post-conference, networking, and more. October 5-7.

Register here >>

Development Coordinator - CT Farmland Trust

TerraCorps Community Engagement Coordinator - New Canaan Land Trust

TerraCorps Land Stewardship/Community Engagement Coordinator - Greenwich Land Trust

New England Soil Health Program Manager - American Farmland Trust

Programs Administrator - Northwest CT Land Conservancy

Colleagues at UConn CLEAR have developed a rain garden app which guides users on how to plant and maintain a rain garden. Judy Rondeau, assistant director of the Eastern CT Conservation District said, "[Rain gardens] will relieve stress on the storm drain system and direct the water to where it will infiltrate into the soil...