Announcements

CLE Credits Available

Many of the workshops offered at our conference have been approved by the Board of Overseers of the Bar for Continuing Legal Education credits. View details here.

Land for Maine’s Future Announces New Round of Conservation and Farmland Protection Funding

With passage of the new land bond in November 2007, the Land for Maine’s Future Board has issued a new call for land conservation proposals. The deadline for applications is April 1, 2008. After careful evaluation, the Board will select project finalists at its July 2008 meeting. The LMF program has released an updated edition of its “Proposal Workbook”. All prospective applicants are strongly encouraged to read the workbook thoroughly as some provisions of the program were changed in recent legislation. The Workbook is now available at http://www.maine.gov/spo/lmf/publications/. Copies can also be obtained from the LMF office by calling (207) 287-1485.

Changes to Accreditation Indicator Practices

The subset of the Land Trust Standards and Practices upon which accreditation is based - the “indicator practices” has been changed. A number of indicator practices tested in the 2007 accreditation pilot have been dropped from the list. The changes were made to help reduce redundancy and streamline the accreditation process, while still allowing the Commission to obtain the information needed to make credible and consistent decisions. Overall the number of indicator practices has been reduced from 42 – 37. Read more…

Land Trust News

Supporting Traditional Economic Interests

Many Maine land trusts conserve properties that feed the local economy and sustain traditional ways of life. Unlike residential development, which can carry a high cost in long-term services, farmland, forest land, working waterfronts and recreational lands all provide an ongoing source of local revenue, and benefit many businesses. [read more]

Approaching Accreditation

In 2004 the Land Trust Alliance commissioned a group of land trust leaders to study the best way to ensure long-term public confidence in land trusts. The result of that process was the development of a voluntary accreditation program for land trusts. Since then, the Land Trust Accreditation Commission formed and developed an accreditation program which is currently being tested in advance of a 2008 public launch. [read more]