For immediate release
Contact: Anthony Flint 617-503-2116
Will Jason 617-503-2254
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – David Hartwell, an environmental leader who has helped mobilize billions of dollars for conservation projects across Minnesota, has been named the new Kingsbury Browne Fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the winner of the Kingsbury Browne Conservation Leadership Award from the Land Trust Alliance.
Hartwell was a leader in a seven-year campaign to pass the Clean Water, Land and Legacy Amendment, a 2008 initiative that will fund conservation projects through 2034 through an enhanced sales tax of three-eighths of one percent. The amendment will generate an estimated $6 billion for conservation, arts and cultural preservation and parks and trails. From 2010 to 2013 alone, it funded some 65 projects related to land acquisition, restoration and conservation in Minnesota.
Hartwell is the founder and former president of Bellcomb, Inc. He serves as president of the board for the Belwin Conservancy, a 1,350-acre sanctuary in Afton, Minn., and on the boards of National Audubon Society, Children & Nature Network, Island Conservation, Conservation Minnesota, Wildlife Land Trust and the Lessard Sams Outdoor Heritage Council as well as a number of private company boards. He is a former member of the Land Trust Alliance board.
In the fellowship, Hartwell will engage in research, writing and mentoring, under the Lincoln Institute's Department of Planning and Urban Form.
The fellowship is just one piece of the Lincoln Institute’s active engagement in land conservation, which includes the publication of the Policy Focus Report Large Landscape Conservation: A Strategic Framework for Policy and Action and the book Conservation Catalysts, and the establishment of the Practitioners Network for Large Landscape Conservation and the International Land Conservation Network, groups of leaders and innovators on the forefront of today's conservation strategies.
The fellowship and award were announced Friday night at the Land Trust Alliance's Rally 2016: The National Land Conservation Conference in Minneapolis, where the Lincoln Institute and the International Land Conservation Network are leading workshops and discussions about cross-border conservation, planning tools for large landscape conservation, and collaboration between academics, nonprofit organizations and public agencies.
The Kingsbury Browne fellowship and award is in its 11th year. Previous winners were Steve Small, a legal pioneer who paved the way to make conservation easements tax-deductible in the U.S.; Jean Hocker, a former president of the Land Trust Alliance and longtime board member at the Lincoln Institute; Larry Kueter, a Denver attorney specializing in agricultural and ranchland easements in the West; Peter Stein, managing director of Lyme Timber Co; Audrey C. Rust, president emeritus of the Peninsula Open Space Trust based in Palo Alto, Calif.; Jay Espy, executive director of the Elmina B. Sewall Foundation; Jamie Williams, president of The Wilderness Society; Laurie A. Wayburn, co-founder of the Pacific Forest Trust; Mark Ackelson, president of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation; and Darby Bradley, president of the Vermont Land Trust.
About the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy
The Lincoln Institute of Land Policy is an independent, nonpartisan organization whose mission is to help solve global economic, social, and environmental challenges to improve the quality of life through creative approaches to the use, taxation, and stewardship of land.
About the Land Trust Alliance
Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance is a national land conservation organization that works to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America. The Alliance represents more than 1,100 member land trusts supported by more than 100,000 volunteers and 5 million members nationwide. The Alliance is based in Washington, D.C. and operates several regional offices. More information about the Alliance is available at www.landtrustalliance.org.
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