After an extensive evaluation that included digitally scanning more than 300,000 documents, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (Forest Society) has been awarded accreditation by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission. The Forest Society is one of seven land trusts in New Hampshire and 230 across the country to be awarded accreditation since 2008.
“The accreditation process has made the Forest Society better at what we do,” said Jane Difley, president/forester of the Forest Society. “Accreditation is an important symbol of everyone in the land trust community taking responsibility to voluntarily meet the standards in order to promote the integrity of our mission. It will only strengthen the trust our donors and supporters have in us."
Each accredited land trust submitted extensive documentation and underwent a rigorous review. “Through accreditation land trusts conduct important planning and make their operations more efficient and strategic,” said TammaraVan Ryn, the commission’s executive director. “Accredited organizations have engaged and trained citizen conservation leaders and improved systems for ensuring that their conservation work is permanent.”
The accreditation process involved modernizing the Forest Society’s record keeping, which required staff members to scan 311,300 records of its land protection projects from the past 112 years.
“This was the incentive we needed to fully digitize a century of property files so that we can now use them more efficiently and effectively for ongoing stewardship of our lands and easements,” said Paul Doscher, vice president for land conservation. “It was a big task, but now that it’s done, the benefits will accrue to generations of staff and volunteers to follow us."
The Forest Society is now able to display a seal of accreditation indicating to the public that it meets national standards for excellence, upholds the public trust and ensures that conservation efforts are permanent. The seal is a mark of distinction in land conservation.
“Land trusts are gaining higher profiles with their work on behalf of citizens and the seal of accreditation from the Land Trust Accreditation Commission is a way to prove to their communities that land trusts are worthy of the significant public and private investment in land conservation,” said Rand Wentworth, president of the Land Trust Alliance.
Founded in 1901, the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests is the state’s oldest and largest non-profit land conservation organization. Supported by 10,000 families and businesses, the Forest Society’s mission is to perpetuate the state’s forests by promoting land conservation and sustainable forestry. The organization owns 50,000 conserved acres of land in New Hampshire and holds conservation easements on another 115,000 acres.
Land is America’s most important and valuable resource. Conserving land helps ensure clean air and drinking water, food security, scenic landscapes and views, recreational places, and habitat for the diversity of life on earth. Across the country, local citizens and communities have come together to form land trusts to save the places they love.
Community leaders in land trusts throughout the country have worked with willing landowners to save over 47 million acres of farms, forests, parks and places people care about. Strong, well-managed land trusts provide local communities with effective champions and caretakers of their critical land resources, and safeguard the land through the generations.
“We're pleased to be among the accredited land trusts nationwide," said Carolyn Benthien, chair of the board of trustees of the Forest Society. “As board members entrusted with the stewardship of our non-profit organization, we have learned a great deal through the process and firmly believe that accreditation is a critically important step towards leaving the Forest Society better than we found it."