Many of you have reached out to ask if and how the Land Trust is being impacted by recent executive orders and changes in federal funding and staffing. First, we want to say thank you for your support and concern! We are so fortunate to do our work alongside such a supportive community.

The Land Trust is being impacted by these changes in the following ways:

• Paused payments: Payments from federal grants awarded to the Land Trust in 2023 and 2024 are currently paused. We aren’t sure when or if we will be able to receive these funds. While we don’t expect this to cause major disruptions to our operations, we will be relying more heavily on private donations and state funding to cover expenses originally funded through these grants.
• Reduced partner capacity: Reductions in staff and funding for our Tribal and federal partners will limit our ability to partner on conservation and stewardship projects. This includes land transfers, cross-boundary wildfire mitigation, stream restoration projects, and pollinator conservation efforts.
• New grants: Federal solicitations for grants for future projects have also been paused. This may result in the delayed implementation of planned restoration projects.

While the Land Trust is certainly being impacted by the changes listed above, many of our partners are facing significantly greater impacts to their organizations. There remains a great deal of uncertainty, but we feel confident that we have the staff, Board, and community support and expertise needed to adapt to changes as they continue to emerge.

In the short term, we know that there will be less federal funding available for our conservation, stewardship, and community engagement efforts, and that we will be looking to our community of supporters to help us chart a course forward. Thank you again for your continued support!

~Rika Ayotte