Orono, Bangor land trusts picked for elite program; could be awarded grant money

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Any college student knows this basic truth: The hard work starts after the financial aid comes in.

The same goes for the Orono Land Trust (OLT) and the Bangor Land Trust (BLT), which jointly announced last week that they have been selected to take part in the Maine Land Trust Excellence Program.  This program, a cooperative undertaking by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust (MCHT) and the Land Trust Alliance (LTA), a national organization, provides grant money to help local land trusts prepare for a rigorous review of their operating standards and practices overseen by the LTA’s Accreditation Commission.

In this context, a land trust is a nonprofit agency that seeks to preserve natural lands by acquiring either the property itself or conservation easements thereupon.

The Excellence Program is highly competitive.  According to the OLT/BLT joint release, there are more than 90 land trusts in the state of Maine, only 15 of which have been chosen to take part in the program.  Those selected receive up to $18,000 in grant funding to prepare for the accreditation process, plus administrative and organizational support and training from MCHT.  By accepting, participants are committing to apply for accreditation within three years.

Warren Whitney, MCHT’s program director for the Excellence Program, explained that accreditation is important because it gives the public, as well a potential donors and other organizations, confidence that an accredited land trust will live up to its name.  The review process scrutinizes a trust’s legal and ethical standards, scientific diligence, accounting practices, record keeping, and much more — virtually every facet of the trust’s organization and operation.  Additionally, simply by undertaking such a rigorous examination, the trusts themselves are strengthened.

“It’s a really rigorous process,” he said.

Conservation of land and resources, a land trust’s principal function, is a business that works on extremely long time scales, Whitney explained.  Easements and other such legal instruments, which form the bulk of a land trust’s work, are often granted in perpetuity and have conditions attached, which makes conservation not an act but a process — one that requires continuity within the organization.

“That’s one of the key things to think about,” Whitney said.

Jerry Longcore, president of the Orono Land Trust’s board, agreed.

“We’re not here in perpetuity individually,” he said. “You have to maintain your records.”

He added that he believes accreditation “will keep us on track to serve the community better.”

The OLT and BLT announced their selections jointly, but they are participating in the program as individual trusts with separate grants and separate review processes.  However, because they are neighbors and have been working together for years (the OLT was created in 1986, the BLT in 2001), both they and MCHT expect they will be collaborating informally and providing mutual support during the accreditation process.

“We do share policies back and forth,” said BLT board President Lucy Quimby.  She noted the trusts have worked together on several projects in the past, most prominently their 7,000-acre Caribou Bog-Penjajawoc Project, which seeks to create a corridor of conserved land from near the Bangor Mall all the way out to Alton and Hudson.  “We have had wonderful collaboration with the Orono Land Trust,” she said.

“They’re an interesting pair,” Whitney said of the trusts.  ”They seem to collaborate exceptionally well, which is something that’s great to see.  They’ve got competent, energetic, enthusiastic people.  They’re a good group.”

Whitney added that both organizations are well connected with the communities they serve.  “That’s, I think, a bit part of the appeal,” he said, and one reason why they were chosen for the Excellence Program.

All parties agreed that the next three years will be a busy time but expressed confidence that the OLT and BLT will get the job done.

“There’s an enormous amount of work involved,” Quimby acknowledged.

Longcore was upbeat: “I think we have the capabilities within our trust to accomplish that [accreditation].”

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 26th, 2010, 11:16 pm. You can follow any responses to this article through the RSS feed.