Job Opening: Term Land Steward

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust is looking for a new team member. We have an immediate opening for the position of term land steward.

Term Land Stewards are temporary employees, hired to assist the Land Trust with monitoring of protected lands through aerial reconnaissance and field inspection, which requires significant travel and frequent overnight stay. Monitoring requires individuals to have field orientation, manage diverse terrain, and work independently in remote areas.

Additionally, these individuals will create Baseline Documentation Reports for new conservation easement projects. Many of these projects require travel, often to southwest Georgia. Term Land Stewards report to the Stewardship Director and are responsible for the following tasks: gathering project materials, conducting environmental field assessments, documenting conservation values and current conservation easement conditions through photographs, maps, and written reports. Additional duties include

Term Land Stewards report to the Stewardship Director and are responsible for the following tasks: gathering project materials, conducting environmental field assessments, documenting conservation values and current conservation easement conditions through photographs, maps, and written reports. Additional duties include completing and submitting annual monitoring assignments as scheduled, communication with landowners for obtaining permission to access properties, conducting and documenting site visits, maintaining and submitting reports, invoices, and tracking for mileage, work hours, expenses, and property modifications.

Additionally, these Land Stewards will be trained to handle Reserved Right Requests and Land Transfers. During this term, 40% of the Land Steward’s time will be devoted to site monitoring, and 60% drafting baseline documentation reports. Applicants should be committed to working on a diverse array of conservation properties with the ability to effectively communicate with landowners and staff.

General Requirements include but are not limited to the following:

• Bachelor of Science Degree (biology, ecology, forestry, environmental science or related field).
• 2 Years related experience in land protection, ecological land management or equivalent combination of experience and education. (This may be negotiable with Master’s Degree)
• Knowledge of and experience with ArcGIS Desktop (10.0 version or higher).
• Field skills for navigating, surveying and mapping landscapes and features, including use of GPS and handheld devices.
• Competency of standard computer software including MS Word and Excel
• Ability to conduct independent research online for obtaining tax parcels.
• Ability to read title and warranty deed land descriptions.
• Understanding conservation practices and natural resource preservation.
• Understanding Southeast biodiversity and land management practices; including, flora and fauna, timber and agricultural practices, and wetland and water resources.
• Physical ability to hike, perform labor-intensive activities and fly in small aircraft.

To apply, submit applications to Amy Gaddy, Interim Stewardship Director, Georgia Alabama Land Trust, Inc., 226 Old Ladiga Road, Piedmont, AL 36272 or email to stewardship@galandtrust.org . Applications should include a cover letter, resume, and references. Additionally, it is preferred that example maps are included with the resume, as mapping will be included in most aspects of this position.

For a look at the complete job description, please click HERE.

 

 

 

Join Our Team!

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust has an immediate opening for director of finance and personnel.

The director position responsibilities include overseeing accounts payable, accounts receivable, bank reconciliations, month-end financials, annual budget preparation, monthly forecasting, and analysis of performance.  Extensive financial management of special programs including related companies and affiliates. The director also oversees and manages all aspects of human resources and personnel.  Specific responsibilities include but are not limited to the following :

• Review and verify vendor invoices, obtaining project manager approval prior to preparing payment
• Receive payments and code to correct program
• Maintain donation and grant tracking
• Prepare weekly Cash Position and Program Invoice Tracking updates
• Prepare monthly Budget versus Actual by program
• Quarterly and end of year report preparation in final form for presentation to Finance and Investment Committee (Balance Sheet, Profit & Loss Statement, Budget versus Actual and Fund Restriction Status)
• Special Programs management (ACUB, Habitat, ILF and CVLT) and maintain highly detailed records
• Prepare annual budget for the land trust and affiliate
• Assist outside auditor with annual financial audit of the land trust and affiliate, including 990 preparation
• Oversee personnel duties to include payroll, taxes, leave, and all related entries
• Oversee processing new hires and maintenance of personnel files
• Manage 403(b) retirement plan; including communication with related staff, payroll submissions, adding and removing employees and making necessary edits
• Manage wireless plans for staff, which includes cell phone and tablet access

General requirements for the position include the following:

• B.S. in Accounting or Finance
• Non-Profit Accounting experience desirable
• Two to four years of experience in a similar position
• Experience with QuickBooks or similar accounting software; advanced Excel skills.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Word, Outlook, and PowerPoint.
• Strong organizational, analytical and interpersonal skills.

For a complete job description click HERE.  Deadline for submission is July 20th, 2016. Please submit a cover letter and resume to info@galandtrust.org.

 

 

Ducks Go Wild on the Terrapin !

A crowd of over a hundred gathered to learn about creek critters and watch little rubber duckies race at the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust’s third annual Duck Derby.

All the little yellow fellows crossed the finish line to the delight of the crowd, especially all the kids. Earlier in the day those same kids spent the day catching bugs, learning how to detect venomous snakes, and how to be safe on the water. One of our partners, the Anniston Museum of Natural History lent us two birds of prey, a red-tailed hawk and an owl, to teach kids about birds and bird migration.

Renee Raney with Bobo the Owl.

Money raised at this year’s event will fund our new conservation education institute. The outreach program, led by Conservation Director Renee Raney, is an effort to educate the young about the importance of preserving special places. She says,”Today’s children spend less time outside than any previous generation. Playing outside creates a connection between life and land, building our future conservationists!”

A Big thank you goes out to all of the participants, duck adopters, volunteers, door prize donors, and our hosts, Mike and Kat at Terrapin Outdoor Center and Hank and Teresa at Red Neck Yacht Club. A special thank you to Cheaha State Park Cooperative Extension Service, and Wells Fargo for their support.  We cannot wait until next year! (Hint: It’s June 3rd, 2017!)

 

 

 

Join Our Team!

Our affiliate, the Chattahoochee Valley Land Trust(CVLT), has an opening for a program manager. The position oversees the land protection program for the sixteen county region around Columbus, Georgia, including three counties in Eastern Alabama.

Key responsibilities include:

• Working with landowners to protect land through conservation easements
• managing conservation projects
• visiting properties to identify conservation values
• communicating with staff attorneys regarding project details
• preparing project proposals, and related project documents; and the ongoing management and follow up to ensure project completion
• cultivating landowner relationships in furtherance of the CVLT mission is crucial
• demonstrate ties to the Columbus area and prior dealings or contacts with community landowners, professionals, officials, and other interested stakeholders would be beneficial

The Program Manager is also responsible for the day-to-day management of the CVLT office, including file management, returning phone calls and preparation of board materials. This position reports to the ACUB Program Director / Legal Director.  Salary is commensurate with experience and skill set.

For a full listing of responsibilties click HERE.

Please submit your letter of interest and résumé to Hal Robinson at hrobinson@galandtrust.org.  Email inquiries only, please.

 

Paid Summer Internship

Want to play in the woods and get paid to do it? This summer the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust will have a paid summer intern program funded by Legacy Partners in Environmental Education.  The program is part of the Darryl Gates Memorial Summer College Internship Program.

Interns will work full-time for a minimum of eight weeks and must be rising Juniors or Seniors in good academic standing.  Applicants must be enrolled full-time in a relevant undergraduate degree program at a four-year college or university in the state of Alabama. The program is looking for students who are enrolled in a variety of environmentally-related fields, such as environmental education or engineering; environmental studies; teaching degrees in science, biology, or related field; environmental law; or other related career paths.  Applicants must have a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a 4.0 point scale as of Fall quarter/semester 2015, and are planning to be enrolled full-time through the fall of 2016.

Our intern will be working with our new Conservation Education Institute and will assit with the development, implementation, and assessment of immersion-based programs, outdoor adventure workshops, and other fun events that connect people to nature. The intern will also have opportunities to work in land protection, easement monitoring, land management practices and conservation field surveys.

For more information or an application click HERE.

 

Permanent Easement Tax Incentive Awaits President’s Signature

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust today praised a bipartisan congressional vote that makes permanent a federal tax incentive supporting land conservation.

Farmers, ranchers and the public will directly benefit from the incentive that encourages landowners to place a conservation easement on their land to protect important natural, scenic and historic resources. Georgia-Alabama Land Trust was among the 1,100 land trusts to support the incentive through a collaborative, multi-year campaign.

“This will have significant impact on land conservation in our community,” said Katherine Eddins, Executive Director of the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust. “We are grateful to Congress and our local representatives for this important legislation.”

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust is a member of the Land Trust Alliance, the national land conservation organization that led the campaign for permanence.

In a strong bipartisan action, the House voted 318-109 and the Senate voted 65-33 to pass the bills that included the tax incentive.

First enacted as a temporary provision in 2006, the incentive is directly responsible for conserving more than 2 million acres of America’s natural outdoor heritage. The incentive grants certain tax benefits to landowners who sign a conservation easement. Such private, voluntary agreements with local land trusts permanently limit uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values. Lands placed into conservation easements can continue to be farmed, hunted or used for other specified purposes. The lands also remain on county tax rolls, strengthening local economies.

Once signed into law, the incentive will be applied retroactively to Jan. 1, 2015. An earlier version of the incentive expired Dec. 31, 2014.

 

 

Feature Friday: George Jeter

Every Friday we will  feature and flashback to one of our easement landowners. These stories are updates on profiles written by Frank McIntosh.

George Jeter with grandchildren Stewart and Brantley

Land owning in the Jeter family goes back just a little ways. The family first arrived at Port Royal, VA before 1700. The generations in between have been landowners, as Jeter says, “leapfrogging from one frontier to the next.” When Columbus, GA was founded in the 1830s, the Jeters had already arrived in the area.

Jeter grew up an avid hunter and says the appeal of the land goes back to the days when he’d grab his single shot .410 or .22 and take his bike up the road and go hunting. Although he no longer hunts, saying he “takes no great pleasure in killing,” he still loves the woods and the animals. His greatest pleasure in owning the land he says is having “free range” to roam and notes that it is ever more difficult to have that access to land without owning some.

Jeter, who worked as CFO for AFLAC, says, “I’ve been retired since 1985, but I still pretty much work full-time” as a consultant to the company and various charitable organizations. Jeter notes Columbus has “per capita probably the highest percentage of charities anywhere.

” I’ve always thought that people who’ve been fortunate should share.” One volunteer project Jeter helped bring to fruition was a 50-year lease of Department of Defense land on West Point Lake for use as a Boy Scout camp. “I had to get the Secretary of Army to sign it. He was the only person who could sign a lease that long.”

Jeter’s son Jim, an engineer at Warner Robins AFB, lives in Bonaire and with the help of some neighbors looks after the property, which has been a bit more of a chore during a recent cold, wet winter. Significant portions of the property stayed underwater for a while, in part because every let up in the rain seemingly triggers another release from the Lake Jackson reservoir upstream on the Ocmulgee.

Cabin on the easement covered in a rare snowfall.

A goodly portion of the easement property was logged prior to Jeter’s purchase, and he intends to try to restore Longleaf pine to some of the upland areas. The balance of the property is used for hunting and to provide habitat. Among the animals that find habitat on the property are a pair of nesting eagles (“I worry about my Shih Tzu when we’re up there,”) a den of coyotes (“you should hear ‘em when the train comes through,”) black bears, bobcats and “ducks by the thousands.” Jim noted with the property’s periodic flooding you could almost hunt deer and duck from the same spot at different points in the year.

There is also a beaver pond near the lodge on the property. The pond stays wet even in the driest weather as the area’s topography area feeds water down off surrounding hills toward the pond. There is also a strong artesian well. A well bored to serve the lodge produces around 2,000 gallons an hour, flowing so freely that it needed to be capped.

Asked what is his least favorite aspect of owning land is, Jeter replies, “You don’t own land; it owns you.” Of course, his family’s known that for a few hundred years.

 

 

Georgia-Alabama Land Trust Receives Grant from The Coca-Cola Company Foundation

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust received a $123,950 grant from the Coca-Cola Company Foundation to support watershed protection in Georgia’s Chattahoochee River Basin and Alabama’s Cahaba, Black Warrior and Tom Bigbee River Basins.

“The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust is working to save water through land preservation throughout the South,” said Katherine Eddins, executive director of the Land Trust. “Funding from the grant will help us and our affiliate in Columbus, Georgia, the Chattahoochee Valley Land Trust, protect land from development in watersheds serving Columbus and Birmingham & Montgomery, Alabama.”

Protected lands under a conservation easement recharge groundwater and streams that provide water for nature and communities.  A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement between a land owner and a land trust that permanently limits the development of the land. Easements protect significant wildlife habitat by preserving open space, including natural areas, farm and forest land.

Development on these now protected lands would have caused increased runoff and the loss of drinkable water. By preserving these 4,338 acres of open space, the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust is ensuring that over 3 billion liters of water will be available for lakes, streams and faucets.

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust, accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, was founded in 1994 by conservation-minded individuals in response to rapid development and encroachment of natural areas, farms and woodlands. We are now the largest private lands conservation organization in the Southeast, protecting over 268,000 acres of land with 775 voluntary conservation easements.

 

Georgia-Alabama Land Trust Receives Grant from The Coca-Cola Company Foundation

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust received a $123,950 grant from the Coca-Cola Company Foundation to support watershed protection in Georgia’s Chattahoochee River Basin and Alabama’s Cahaba, Black Warrior and Tom Bigbee River Basins.

“The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust is working to save water through land preservation throughout the South,” said Katherine Eddins, executive director of the Land Trust. “Funding from the grant will help us and our affiliate in Columbus, Georgia, the Chattahoochee Valley Land Trust, protect land from development in watersheds serving Columbus and Birmingham & Montgomery, Alabama.”

Protected lands under a conservation easement recharge groundwater and streams that provide water for nature and communities.  A conservation easement is a voluntary agreement between a land owner and a land trust that permanently limits the development of the land. Easements protect significant wildlife habitat by preserving open space, including natural areas, farm and forest land.

Development on these now protected lands would have caused increased runoff and the loss of drinkable water. By preserving these 4,338 acres of open space, the Georgia-Alabama Land Trust is ensuring that over 3 billion liters of water will be available for lakes, streams and faucets.

The Georgia-Alabama Land Trust, accredited by the Land Trust Accreditation Commission, was founded in 1994 by conservation-minded individuals in response to rapid development and encroachment of natural areas, farms and woodlands. We are now the largest private lands conservation organization in the Southeast, protecting over 268,000 acres of land with 775 voluntary conservation easements.

 

Feature Friday: Jo Colmore Easement

Every Friday we will  feature one of our easement landowners. These stories are updates on profiles written by Frank McIntosh.

When you own “the prettiest little mountain farm you ever saw,” and your work—raising pure-bred Salers Cattle— is the passion of your life, you start to think about how to protect a place.

Jo Colmore’s Walker County, GA. tract is one of the largest unbroken tracts in an area of increasing fragmentation of property. Located on top of Lookout Mountain, the land is “just full of hemlocks” and, according to Colmore, is the perfect spot for a home site and to raise his “momma cows.”

Jo Colmore with some of his Saler’s Cattle

Colmore has owned the property since 1967, when he and his brother got “a hankering to own some land.” After running a summer camp until 1983, Colmore turned to cattle breeding full-time. The calves he raises are sold to other cattle businesses for breeding purposes.

While his place is usually a portrait of tranquility, the mothers were weaning calves at the time of this interview. Colmore says it gets a little hectic during weaning but that “everyone calms down in a week or so.”

Like many donors, Colmore didn’t just leap into his conservation easement. He took his time, but came to the decision after taking in the miles of darkness untouched by electric lights. He realized it was time to “join this thing” and placed 115 acres of his property, including sensitive areas along Bear Creek, into a conservation easement.

Woodlands on the 115 acre easement

Colmore enjoys sitting on his porch at night looking out at the pristine woodlands of his property and the nearby Cloudland Canyon State Park.