With Thanksgiving and the end of the year coming up, I am taking a moment to step back and appreciate the work that we do here at NeighborSpace. I am grateful for the natural beauty of Baltimore County and the land that NeighborSpace has conserved so far. I feel deep appreciation for our stewardship partners and donors who so generously share their resources with NeighborSpace and its communities, and I am thankful every day for the dedication, knowledge, and time of the NeighborSpace Board members. Perhaps most of all, I am grateful for Nature’s resiliency and its ability to thrive even in the smallest urban pockets, and for the County residents who steward it and bring new opportunities for protection to our attention.

Looking ahead, with our 20th anniversary coming up, NeighborSpace is taking stock of where we are as an organization and how we want to carry this work forward. Thanks to the support of our donors and partners, NeighborSpace has so far conserved 21 sites around the county, each with their own character and history. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you that there is much more work to be done. NeighborSpace is the only land trust working across urban Baltimore County and the need and the desire for community open space is only growing. In fact, there are so many exciting properties and projects to consider that NeighborSpace needs to be intentional about saying ‘yes’ and needs to define priorities for what we actively pursue.

A Strategic Conservation Plan is necessary in order for NeighborSpace to protect new land and enhance more communities at a higher pace, while continuing to steward the spaces we currently conserve and to strengthen our existing partnerships. As the Land Trust Alliance explains, “the purpose of a Strategic Conservation Plan is to guide the land trust’s conservation priorities and to identify strategies for advancing those priorities. Outlining priorities and criteria helps to avoid missed opportunities on the one hand and to avoid acquiring properties that don’t fit the land trust’s mission on the other hand.” By streamlining the project selection process and by mapping priority areas, a Strategic Conservation Plan actually helps the land trust increase its pace of conservation. 

NeighborSpace is approaching the Strategic Conservation Planning process with the community-centered focus that it applies to all aspects of our work. We are looking to you, our partners and donors, to lay the groundwork for NeighborSpace’s work for the coming decade or more. There are many questions to consider and individuals will likely have very different answers, depending on their background and priorities. It is important that a wide variety of stakeholders engage in an equitable and focused conversation.

There are two ways that you can support NeighborSpace in this critical process: 

• Please donate to our Giving Tuesday campaign so that NeighborSpace can hire an external facilitator to guide our Strategic Conservation Planning process. Donations can be made online here or by check to NeighborSpace of Baltimore County, P.O. Box 6715, Towson, MD 21285.
• Please participate in the Strategic Conservation Planning process. Contact me at phyllis@neighborspacebaltimorecounty.org or 443-850-2756 to be included in the conversation. 

As always, I am grateful for your support. Happy Thanksgiving to you and your loved ones.