Prairie with Blazingstar wildflowers; Gray Hairstreak butterfly on leaf

A shared vision for conservation

Vitally important and irreplaceable natural landscapes across Illinois are threatened by development, pollution, and other pressures. These lands are in urgent need of preservation. But land conservation in Illinois has long been highly fragmented; public and private, local and statewide, Chicago metro and downstate efforts operate independently, with vastly different resources and priorities. After 10 years of supporting a variety of land conservation efforts, in 2008 Grand Victoria Foundation decided to address conservation groups’ frustration at the lack of coordination by bringing together nonprofit conservation leaders to begin changing the picture. Through periodic statewide Summits and an ongoing working group, conservation leaders set a new comprehensive vision: “An interconnected system of protected land and water of sufficient scale to allow habitat, wildlife, and people to thrive.”
 

Embodying the vision in grantmaking

In an extraordinary collaboration, Grand Victoria Foundation invited the conservation leaders to help set priorities for the Foundation’s grantmaking in support of Vital Lands Illinois. The guidelines they drafted, approved by the Foundation’s board in 2009, spell out criteria for ensuring permanent protection of high-quality, strategically located lands and engaging local partners and community residents to cherish Illinois’ natural heritage. The conservation groups have set out a course of action to implement the vision and conservation practices set out in the guidelines through their own work and collaboration.