In the Business of Forever
“How are you doing… with all this… you know… everything, government, stuff like that?” This is a question I get a lot these days – my friends and colleagues are checking in with me, and with DALC.
Since he took office just two months ago, President Trump has issued an unprecedented number of executive orders and administrative actions that touch on almost every part of the federal government. And those actions trickle down to all of us, creating real and potentially long-lasting uncertainty and challenges for land trusts
DALC does have federal funding, and it’s been frozen and unfrozen. We have no idea what will happen to the farm bill, which provides a lot of dollars for land protection and conservation practices. DALC collaborates with many agencies and organizations where workforce reductions have been devastating. Individually, we all have friends and colleagues who have lost their jobs in the last two months.
In a word, it’s brutal. So what do we do? Well, there is only so much we have control over.
We’re building financial resilience by diversifying our funding streams. We rely on annual fundraising from individuals (thank you!); foundation grants; federal, state, and local grants and programs; and we have a healthy operating reserve. We’ve used generous bequests to establish sustaining reserve funds for land management, the Driftless Trail, and land protection.
We are advocating for nonprofits and the Knowles-Nelson Stewardship Program. Nonprofits can and do lobby our legislators (though there are strict limits on how much of that we can do). I’m working to get to know our legislators, make sure they know how chaos in the federal government affects local livelihoods, and make sure they know how important state funds for conservation are in Wisconsin. You can help too – visit knowlesnelson.org and let your representatives know how you’ve benefited from this program!
We are staying educated – the Land Trust Alliance has been a great resource in keeping us up to date on what’s happening in the federal landscape and how it affects us. We talk to our peers at other land trusts to learn how they are handling this new landscape. And we talk to you through personal calls, events, and field trips, to understand how our community is impacted.
Finally, we’re just trying to stay calm and focus on the long game. DALC is in the business of forever. We will make it through this crisis and others to come. We will lean into our communities, and we will adapt and stay flexible. This could be painful, and it’s already stressful. But here’s what else we’ll be doing: watching families enjoy the Driftless Trail, gathering with neighbors at sunset to learn about the night sky, watching hoary puccoon flowers and bird’s foot violets carpet a freshly burned prairie, and getting a hug from a landowner that just completed a conservation easement. I love our work, even during the hard times, and I know you do too!
Written by Jen Filipiak, Executive Director