Members of Virginia’s land trust and conservation community work on communications and messaging techniques last week at a training sponsored by Virginia’s United Land Trusts and the Partnership.

By Jonathan Doherty

Land trusts and conservationists gathered last week in Virginia to work on communications and messaging strategies for talking about land protection. Participants explored a narrative around which unified and tailored messaging can be built, learned the formula for effective messaging, and practiced message development.

This was the second in a series of state-wide training sessions designed to facilitate more effective communications supporting land conservation. It was convened by Virginia’s United Land Trusts and organized in collaboration with the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership and Spitfire Strategies. The Partnership engaged Spitfire last fall to develop a coordinated messaging framework that helps all members engage audiences in talking about conservation.

A similar workshop was held for Maryland land trusts and conservationists in January. A third session is scheduled at the Pennsylvania Land Trust Association conference in May. A toolkit for use by all partners is under development.

Thanks to the Agua Fund for supporting the Virginia session, and to the Appalachian Trail Landscape Partnership and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy for supporting the initiative.

Lightning Update is a regular communication of the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership. Any opinions expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect positions of the Partnership or member organizations.
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Support for the Chesapeake Conservation Partnership is provided by:
National Park Service Chesapeake
EPA Chesapeake Bay Program
USDA Forest Service
Pennsylvania Department of Conservation & Natural Resources
Maryland Department of Natural Resources
Virginia Outdoors Foundation
US Fish & Wildlife Service
Chesapeake Conservancy

The Chesapeake Conservation Partnership is co-convened by: