Join Lucy, our Private Lands Policy Analyst, as she debuts our new land trust tool called W.A.L.T. at the Land Trust Alliance Rally in Portland, Oregon. W.A.L.T. stands for Wildlife and Land Trusts. This tool is a website designed to assist land trusts to determine which federal programs will best fit their priorities. You can check it out at https://defenders-cci.org/publication/walt/
Video Transcript:
Hi, I’m Lucy Lefkowitz, and I am the Private Lands Policy Analyst with Defenders of Wildlife.
Today and this week I’m in Portland, Oregon, and I’m here for the Land Trust Alliance Rally Conference.
Land Trusts are nonprofit organizations that acquire or steward land for the purpose of conservation.
This conference brings together land trust professionals from across the country to be in one place and come up with new ideas, learn new tools to better steward their lands.
Today is special because I am taking a self-guided field trip at a land trust, privately owned land, the Audubon Society. And it is beautiful. And I can’t wait to show you and take you along
This property owned and stewarded by the Audubon Society, supports many species of wildlife, including the Wilson’s Warbler, the Mountain Beaver and giant salamanders.
Now we’ve arrived at the Oregon Convention Center, where the Land Trust Alliance Rally is being held.
Today I’ll be unveiling Defenders’ Private Lands program’s new land trust tool called W.A.L.T.
W.A.L.T. stands for Wildlife and Land Trusts. This tool is a website designed to assist land trusts to determine which federal programs will best fit their priorities.
I’ll be demoing the tool in between workshop sessions at Rally.
W.A.L.T. is user friendly with a simple how to use the tool guide on the left hand column of the home page.
The top of the page lists the different priorities for land trusts.
Here I click on Land Acquisition and I can see the various programs that provide financial and technical assistance for land trusts.
And best of all, here’s a statement from one of the many people from Rally looking forward to using W.A.L.T.
“Best resource I’ve seen at the conference so far.”
Be sure to check out W.A.L.T. online to better assist you in finding financial and technical resources to help you in stewarding your land.
