Capital Region Land Conservancy is pleased to introduce Conner Almond as its next Director of Land Conservation. After a robust hiring process with many qualified candidates, CRLC’s selection committee noted that Conner’s genuine passion for land conservation, his breadth of experience, and his personality were the best suited for joining the CRLC team.
Conner most recently worked as a consultant for the Mountain Conservation Trust of Georgia where he helped complete several conservation projects and advised on steps to gain reaccreditation. His prior work includes project development, landowner communications, working closely with legal counsel on due diligence and deed review, as well as leading a team to steward 137 conservation easements over more than 54,000 acres. Conner’s efforts at The Barn Group Land Trust helped establish a 20,000+-acre conservation easement on working farmland in Kansas to protect the endangered Lesser Prairie Chicken with funding from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.
“We are excited to welcome Conner as part of the CRLC leadership team as we strive to improve and accelerate our conservation efforts in the region while maintaining the high-quality standard of work we are known for,” said Parker C. Agelasto, Executive Director of Capital Region Land Conservancy.
“I’m excited to join Capital Region Land Conservancy and be part of an organization whose commitment to land conservation is unparalleled. CRLC has done tremendous work protecting the region’s natural and historic resources. I look forward to helping advance those efforts by working alongside such a dedicated team,” said Conner Almond, Director of Land Conservation at CRLC.
Conner is an ecologist and conservationist with more than 10 years of experience working in wildlife ecology research. He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Mississippi State University. While there he led a statewide research project studying the movement ecology of the Eastern Wild Turkey and previously worked on wildlife telemetry studies in places such as East Texas and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. This work provided him unique insight into the impact habitat fragmentation has on our natural resources and why stitching the land back together through conservation easements is vital to the restoration of our natural ecosystems.
In his free time, Conner enjoys spending time on his small farm in Amelia County with his wife Mackenzie and going on trail rides with their horses.
Conner takes over as Director of Land Conservation from Jane Myers who has worked at CRLC since 2009. Jane will continue to work part-time as she helps to train Conner on CRLC’s policies and procedures and transition her responsibilities before her retirement.