Question: Explain why natural land conservation is capacity issues and opportunities for important to address climate change?
McCrea: Natural land conservation serves as the cornerstone of the global effort to preserve biodiversity and maintain healthy ecosystems. It starts at the local level with place-based decision- making and culminates into regional efforts that connect vast areas and ecosystems. This creates corridors for ecosystem-based adaptation to build resiliency to climate change.
The CLC is proud to announce that the Brabson Family Foundation has continued to support our work with a grant of $20,000. This generous grant will help CLC to update its existing conservation easement (CE) template, as well as create two additional templates for use by land trusts that will benefit Hoosiers statewide.
We are proud of the progress that has been made in our landscape this past year and the bright future ahead. None of this could be possible without the hard work and time commitment from all of you, including both landowners dedicated to conservation and partnering organizations and agencies.
Conservation Law Center appreciates our long-standing relationship with the Herbert Simon Family Foundation and are proud to acknowledge their continued support of our efforts. This year, the Herbert Simon Family Foundation will be aiding us in our land conservation work which includes our ongoing support of Indiana land trusts as well as our new Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape program.
The Conservation Law Center seeks applications for a Program Coordinator to join our team based in the beautiful Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. This is an exciting opportunity to join an organization and broad partnership focused on providing solutions to some of the most important and challenging conservation and environmental issues in Indiana. The Coordinator will work with a diverse group of public and private partners to achieve various natural resource conservation goals within the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape geographic boundaries. These goals include land and soil conservation, water quality and riparian corridors, threatened and endangered species, and the critical goal of maintaining military readiness in southern Indiana’s four defense bases.
Conservation Law Center seeks applications for the Landscape Conservation Attorney to join our team based in the beautiful Midwestern college town of Bloomington, Indiana. This is an exciting opportunity to join a growing public interest law firm working on some of the most important and challenging conservation issues in the US and beyond. The Landscape Conservation Attorney will focus primarily on land conservation and habitat protection projects, with a particular focus on the Southern Indiana Sentinel Landscape project. We are bringing landscape-scale conservation to the heartland, and the Landscape Conservation Attorney position will be a key player in the effort.
How do we help land trusts? We give pro bono advice on matters of conservation easement drafting and enforcement, complex real estate transactions, property liabilities, and countless other matters related to running a nonprofit organization.
This July, La Porte County Judge Richard R. Stalbrink ruled that Indiana holds the state’s Lake Michigan shore in trust for public uses, including swimming, sunbathing, and other recreational activities. The decision, Gunderson v. State, No. 46D02-1401-PL-606 (LaPorte Super. Ct. 2 July 24, 2015) establishes that citizens’ rights extend beyond the water to an administratively established boundary on the shore, regardless of beach ownership.
The CLC prepared the third in a series of conservation easement guides for the Land Trust Alliance (LTA). This guide covers the "outdoor recreation" category of qualifying purposes for tax deductible conservation easements.
In mid-October, CLC attorneys presented workshops at the annual national meeting of the Land Trust Alliance in Portland, Oregon. Bill co-presented the workshop "Conservation Easements in a Changing World - Balancing Flexibility with Permanence." Bill, Andrea, and Jeff, along with Christian Freitag, executive director of our long-standing client Sycamore Land Trust, presented the workshop "Drafting Working Landscape Conservation Easements."
