April 26-28, 2020
The Hotel Madison, Harrisonburg, VA
For more information: vaunitedlandtrusts.org/annual-conference/ 

Proposals Due:  Thursday, November 21, 2019

Virginia’s United Land Trusts is pleased to invite you to be a part of the 2020 Virginia Land Conservation and Greenways Conference.  The three-day conference (Sunday through Tuesday) will provide field trips, educational sessions, and opportunities to network with your colleagues.

In recognition of the Shenandoah Valley’s history as an agricultural landscape, the overall conference theme in 2020 is GROW: growing our economy and communities; growing our influence; growing leadership; growing our audience; and even growing beyond the too-comfortable boundaries of our familiar business-as-usual.  

We welcome any topic you know will be useful and interesting to our audience.  Topics not limited to these but here are some suggestions:  

Health:
--Improving community health through access to trails and outdoor recreation
--Creating and managing public access/recreation on conserved lands
--Conserving farmland to improve food access
--Forests and drinking water supplies
--Soil health

Resilience:
--Land conservation as part of the solution to climate change
--Working with landowners to manage their lands for stormwater runoff, invasive-species control, or carbon sequestration
--Trails and greenways as part of our transportation solution

Community Outreach and Partnerships:
--The demographics of our communities.  Is our work relevant to all demographics?  
--Case studies of collaborative opportunities in Virginia for land conservation and greenways

Local Economies:
--How outdoor recreation lands can help form communities and become an economic driver for our cities and towns
--Agritourism case studies, highlighting social and economic impacts
--Tourism opportunities and pitfalls

Land and Trails Nuts and Bolts:
--Stewardship dilemmas, e.g., addressing ongoing violations, interpreting older easements
--Advanced stewardship topics such as mitigation, utility siting on conserved land, water-quality improvement initiatives, new opportunities for remote monitoring, etc.
--Financing and completing complicated conservation and greenway projects
--Advanced legal topics in the area of land use, conservation, landowner liability, and tax incentives

Trainings:
--Fundraising
--Data Management
--Other

Questions about the process? Please contact Sarah Richardson, (804) 225-2048 or Natasha Skelton, (540) 271-0746.