About

The main impetus for this project was a desire to share the stories of land conservation.  After years of beating it into my head (sorry, I am a slow learner), I understand Peter Forbes argument for the need of the personal story.  The numbers and statistics back up everything we know about the success of land conservation.  But do they tell the story of why land conservation has become so successful, and why people dedicate their lives to this work?  Perhaps not.

If you listen to the second podcast, where I am interviewed, you will start to pick up on my story.  Clearly not the whole story, but a piece of the puzzle.  I saw land lost to development growing up (most visibly in the route between my house and the local mall — one by one fields were turned in to rows of houses), but never really appreciated or made the connection.  Four years of college studying environmental policy and somehow I almost missed out on the world of land trusts.  (But not completely missed.  Something would later force me to pull out a text book and look up an article — but that is a story much deeper into my travels)

I am inspired by the people who do the work of land trusts.  Traveling from Unity, ME to Wisdom, MT and meeting with land trusts will be an inspiring and educational opportunity for me, but I hope with this blog that it will be educational and inspiring for others as well.

— Andy

FYI — I would personally make the plural of impetus impeti, but alas, it is impetuses.