Five years. Can you believe 2020 and all the transformational events that unfolded happened five years ago? For some, it feels like just yesterday. For others, it feels like a long time ago. No matter how time feels for you, the vivid memories of the experiences during this period are fading with each passing day, month, and year. And although the intensity of the memories is diminishing, the impact of what happened will stay with us forever.
For Legacy, two notable events from five years ago–the COVID-19 pandemic and the numerous social and racial atrocities–had a huge impact. These events helped shape the organization we are today, and they will keep influencing us in the future. [Click here to read the full report.]
Thinking back to when the pandemic derailed our strategic planning in early 2020, it was hard to see how the organization would benefit from postponing such an important task. As the country also faced the brutal reality of social injustice and racism in America, we knew delaying strategic planning was necessary and exactly what Legacy needed to do.
It gave us the time and the space to reflect deeply about what we wanted Legacy to be and how to define our work as we acknowledge our privilege and part in the historic and present-day exclusion of Black and Indigenous people and racially marginalized groups from the environmental and land trust movements.
We took slow but deliberate steps, intentionally carving out time for personal and organizational self-reflection, development, and growth whenever we could. And as pandemic-related challenges subsided, we were poised to accomplish more than just our routine land protection work.
We started monthly talks about justice, equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion (JEDAI), created a JEDAI policy, and set up a JEDAI Council. We also improved how we hire people, and many staff members went through leadership training that changed the way we work.
A positive and affirming culture emerged. And thanks to a renewed commitment to transparency and open dialogue, the relationships between staff, board, and our partners grew stronger.
Eventually, we doubled down on our planning efforts over the 2023-24 fiscal year culminating with a new strategic plan. In addition to robust core values and an updated mission, the staff and board aligned on an inspirational vision of Legacy’s future centered on protecting diverse ecosystems while also expanding access, creating opportunities, and building a more inclusive future in nature.
Not only are we proud of all the work we did to develop and finalize our strategic plan, we’re celebrating the small steps we’ve taken to thoughtfully start integrating it into our work while at the same time accomplishing so much!
We completed six land projects–including our eighth nature preserve–that comprise over 160 acres of protected land throughout our tri-county service area.
We boosted preserve stewardship efforts for the third year in a row by holding seventeen workdays throughout all our preserves, hosting a third cohort of Huron Pines AmeriCorps members, and adding a new preserve stewardship associate to the team.
We deepened connections with our community participating in twenty-six events and sharing our work with hundreds of people in Jackson, Lenawee, and Washtenaw counties.
We strengthened our volunteer program adding thirty new volunteers (including three photomonitors!) and expanding partnerships with Stockbridge and Lenawee schools through Forest to Mi Faucet work.
We built upon our JEDAI commitment to create an employee-driven culture of empathy, growth, and passion inspiring organization-wide systemic change. It is the lens we challenge ourselves and each other to use in our daily work. And it has allowed us to methodically integrate these principles throughout
the organization.
Legacy’s storied history includes over 50 years of influence from a vast array of volunteers, staff, board, and leaders. These people, and the external pressures and internal dynamics encountered throughout the years, have helped transform our organizational culture over time.
Today, we are proud to be a group of knowledgeable, passionate people who believe in protecting land forever, and who embrace trust, inclusivity, and transparency. The culture we have created is thoughtful, purposeful, and powerful. And, it has shaped our commitment to core values and a vision that goes beyond protecting acres of land.
Innovative land protection grounded in justice, equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion is now part of who we are and how we work. And as we face the reality of an abrupt change in federal priorities and funding sources, it’s more important now than ever. It is our belief that land protection rooted in these principles is appropriate and necessary to provide a tomorrow that future generations can thrive in.
Protecting land in a fair and just way takes bold action and passionate leaders who are willing to question the systems in place. With everything changing around us, we are ready to meet this challenge. We believe taking care of the Earth, each other, and all its inhabitants requires more than what we’ve done before.
Legacy is mindfully embarking on this brazen path. Safeguarding southern Michigan’s land and water to support diverse, resilient, and thriving communities–forever–necessitates us to fully embrace justice, equity, diversity, accessibility, and inclusion in order to protect, preserve, and steward land for all people, and create exceptional qualities of place for our communities.
We’re excited to lean into our vision using it as a guiding force to protect all that we love. And together, with your support, we’ll build a brighter, thriving, more resilient future for our children, our communities, and the diverse, beautiful flora and fauna that share southern Michigan with us.
Yours in Conservation,
Diana Kern, Executive Director & Bill Strohaver, Board President
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