Areas of Focus
CLCC’s Conservation Priorities
We are your land and water conservation voice at the Capitol. Each year, working with our partners and land trust across the state, we establish a strategic Conservation Agenda to prioritize key state and federal legislative and funding initiatives critical to Connecticut’s land and water conservation efforts.
This is a grass-roots, community-supported, and diverse effort tapping into legislative efforts to meet the challenges we face throughout our state. Your participation is important. If you’d like to learn more, or become more involved, please contact CLCC Executive Director Amy Blaymore Paterson at abpaterson@ctconservation.org.
Generally speaking, we organize our advocacy work and programming around the following areas.
Climate Change
Combat climate change together
The land conservation work of land trusts is essential to Connecticut’s efforts in curbing climate change while also serving to engage and empower healthier local communities, protect wildlife and important plant species, ensure cleaner air and water, and provide for other co-benefits of conserving and stewarding greenspaces.
Community Investment Act
The CIA is Critical to the Land Conservation Community
Enacted with tremendous bipartisan support in 2005, the Community Investment Act (CIA) provides a dedicated and consistent source of increased funding for state programs for open space conservation, farmland preservation/dairy production, historic properties preservation, and affordable housing projects as well as for important municipal capital improvement initiatives.
Katharine Lange
Mark Jackson
Conservation Funding
Funding Initiatives Help Connecticut's Land Conservation Community
In Connecticut, the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection funds several programs essential to public and private land conservation efforts. Protecting and enhancing these programs to ensure maximum funding levels and efficiency in implementation is year round priority for the Connecticut Land Conservation Council.
Economic Benefits
Open Space Makes Our World Better
Along with saving critical habitats and benefiting our health, protecting open space provides many financial benefits both locally and nationally.
Peter Smith
Libby Lord
Federal Policy
Advocating Nationally Conserves Land Locally
CLCC provides frequent updates, action alerts and details on legislation affecting land trust policy and other issues impacting conservation and, in partnership with the Land Trust Alliance and other national conservation organizations, participates in outreach opportunities with Connecticut's Congressional delegation.
Land & Equity
We need to do better. We need to do more.
As the State’s umbrella organization for the land conservation community, the Connecticut Land Conservation Council believes in the notion of “stronger together.” From programs to policy, It underscores all that we do. By working together we build trust, enhance each other’s strengths, reach more people, and through our efforts to achieve the common goal of a healthy environment, we have an opportunity to address some of our community’s problems.
Katharine Lange
John Landon
Municipal Conservation Funding
Enabling a Local Option for Land Conservation, Stewardship Funding, Climate Resilience, and other Environmental Projects
The Municipal Open Space Funding Option is proposed enabling legislation that would allow, but not require, towns and cities to establish a limited buyer’s conveyance fee program to fund projects including but not limited to land conservation and stewardship, farmland preservation, and the implementation of strategies to address climate change at the local level.
Tax Considerations
Landowners benefit from conserving land
State and federal tax policies have a huge impact on how much land we’re able to protect. Tax incentives for land conservation offset part of the loss in property value when a landowner donates an easement, which makes conservation a viable option for more landowners.
Yes, Your Land Trust Can Lobby!
Sign up for eNews Action Updates
Receive monthly emails identifying action issues + updates.
Strengthen Connecticut Land Conservation
There are many challenges in land conservation, but we have never yielded. We’ve always found our strength in the support of people who care for the environment as much we do. We can achieve so much more working with one another than alone.
We're stronger together.
