Land Trust Alliance Rally 2009

The Land Trust Alliance’s annual conference returns to Portland, OR this year.

From Oct. 11-14, land conservationists from across the country (and beyond) will come together for training, networking, and fun. It is amazing to see so many people come together all committed to and focused on similar issues.

One event at the first Rally I ever attended sealed the deal for me (I was an intern at the time). There was a boat cruise hosted by TPL after a day of workshops. The limited supply of tickets had been in such high demand that some people attempted to go to Kinkos and get counterfit tickets (there might be something against such actions in Standards & Practices). At one point I wandered away from the live music to see what else was going on. I happened to walk past a group of land trusters that were talking shop. One person pulled out a map to show the property they were working on protecting. Immediately four beer bottles were put down, one on each corner of the map, and people began to pour over the map discussing details.

After that I knew I was in the right field. The passion for land conservation that I saw from this one group was an inspiration.