Regional Land Trust Proposal

Information Sessions (RSVP)

Dear Members & Supporters,

We would like to share an important and exciting opportunity to widen the impact of your land preservation efforts and improve the long-term sustainability of the Wintonbury Land Trust. As mentioned in past newsletters and at our annual membership meeting in June, we are looking to strengthen our work by deepening partnerships with organizations that also protect the environment, preserve local farms, and connect people with nature.

Through the Connecticut Land Conservation Council we increasingly have been working with and getting to know neighboring land trusts. We identified many similarities with East Granby Land Trust and West Hartford Land Trust and last year invited them to formally explore the potential for forming a regional land trust to our mutual benefit. Our leadership talks discovered:

• We share common visions and missions for land conservation that benefits our communities for generations to come.
• Each land trust recognizes that we have limited capacity to expand our visions and missions as far as we would like.
• All three land trusts seek to reach more people, bring more people onto our trails, and educate more people about the importance of land conservation to have a greater impact in our communities.
• Our boards agree the best way to accomplish that could be to join forces by merging to form a regional land trust.

As a Wintonbury Land Trust supporter, we invite you to attend one of the following information sessions to discuss a potential merger with East Granby Land Trust and West Hartford Land Trust:

• Wednesday, February 8, 7:00 – 8:00 pm, Bloomfield Human Services Center, Room 152 – RSVP to help us plan.
• Thursday, February 16, 7:00 – 8:00 pm, via Zoom – RSVP to receive the weblink.

RSVP for an Information Session

At each information session we will share what we have learned and how a merger of our land trusts could strengthen the work we do, and of course we will have time for your questions and suggestions. We hope you attend!

Sincerely,

Dale Bertoldi, Sten Caspersson, Victor Herson, Paula Jones, Suzanne Petke, Christopher Shepard, Ashley Stewart, and Alexa Tzanova
The WLT Board of Directors