Our Mission, Reason for Being and Philosophy

Our Mission

Mount Grace conserves and cares for our forests, farms, and waterways to promote healthy communities in climate-resilient, biodiverse landscapes. 

Mount Grace nurtures the interdependence of people and the land by developing community-based solutions to climate change and loss of habitat and biodiversity. To achieve this goal, conservation must engage with all who depend on forests, farms, and access to nature for livelihoods, peace of mind, and health. Sustainable conservation works to rebuild climate-resilient landscapes that provide clean are and water, healthy food, and biodiversity. The strategies in this plan advance this ethic of sustainability and reflect four themes raised by stakeholders. 

Protecting and stewarding the land 

Our region is blessed with unfragmented landscapes. These critical landscapes require strategic land protection to sustain the resilient corridors that can buffer our ecosystem from escalating climate change impacts and threats to biodiversity. Our landscape-scale conservation and stewardship are informed by science, Indigenous knowledge, and the needs of the community. 

Supporting working landscapes

Working farms and forests are central to the survival of open land and our rural economy. Our programs foster robust food systems to ensure local food remains available for all and protected farmland stays in production despite increasing threats from development. Our conservation work supports both sustainably managed woodlands and forests where natural processes prevail. 

Sharing knowledge

The impacts of our work and magnified by collaboration and sharing knowledge. Through our innovative stewardship we demonstrate the value of working lands and traditional ecological knowledge and facilitate our partners’ efforts to engage in thoughtful land management. We are nationally recognized for supporting our partners with knowledge rooted in science and rich programmatic experience. 

Sharing the land

The natural world should be both accessible and welcoming for all people. By centering land justice in our work, we further our commitment to reconnect more people to the land. As we continue to strengthen relationships with traditional partners, our new collaborations with people of color and Indigenous partners provide opportunities to expand past land trust practices to address unmet community needs in both rural and urban areas. 

Focus

The core strength of Mount Grace Land Conservation Trust is our focus on completing significant land protection projects and actively stewarding the conservation areas we own. Our effectiveness is a function of our “just do it,” no-frills approach and responsiveness to the diverse conservation ethics held by the landowners of our region.

Adaptability

Mount Grace’s track record demonstrates our adaptability in efficiently matching the goals of landowners and the natural resources of their land with appropriate funding sources. Solution-oriented thinking is applied to the particulars of each potential project in the confidence that an appropriate conservation option exists for each situation. Staff members strategically evaluate, then educate, advise, and make referrals in response to requests for conservation assistance.

Collaboration

Respecting organizational differences while recognizing common interests, Mount Grace effectively collaborates with a wide range of conservation agencies, organizations, and individuals. Increasing the capacity of less experienced groups helps protect more land in our region. Concentrating on the benefits of reciprocally sharing resources and knowledge, Mount Grace makes good use of opportunities that arise. Collaboration similarly characterizes staff and board interactions.

Stewardship

Mount Grace’s status as a landowner and property taxpayer gives us land stewardship options. We encourage land stewardship by demonstrating site-appropriate management of all our land, including ecologically sound forest management practices on portions of our conservation areas. We invite members and the public to experience forest stewardship firsthand through guided tours of our conservation areas before, during, and after logging operations. Our conservation areas, many of which have maintained trail systems, are open to the public for non-motorized uses.

Neighborhood land trust

Most important is that the organizational culture of the Mount Grace is compatible with the rural character of our 23-town service area. We are the neighborhood land trust, approachable by people of the region. That we are part of the local landscape, in the fabric and tradition of its social and natural communities, shows in the projects that comprise our organizational history. Bequeathed to Mount Grace in 1999, Skyfields is the farmhouse and forty acres of forests and fields that are our organizational headquarters. It is a place that exemplifies our mission, our work, and the trust of our supporters.