The Chattahoochee Valley Land Trust (CVLT), began as a group of Columbus natives serving on a board that solicited conservation easements (CEs). This board of directors built a great deal of awareness of the need for land protection in the increasingly threatened Chattahoochee River valley and placed several properties under protection.

Understanding that their effectiveness and scope could be enhanced by the addition of staff and resources, the board researched area land trusts and in 2004 hammered out an affiliation with the Georgia Land Trust (GLT), the largest land trust in the region. This affiliation added a full-time staff person and brought to bear GLT’s additional expertise in structuring CEs and providing the required stewardship.  The GLT/CVLT affiliation provides a combination of efforts working towards the same goal of land protection. 

Some recent organizational highlights include:

Standards and Practices

CVLT has adopted the Land Trust Alliance Standards and Practices, so its operations are in accordance with current land trust best management practices.

Grey Rock Road Buffer Project

Since 2002 CVLT worked to protect a buffer along Grey Rock Road that winds through the picturesque landscape of Muscogee and Harris Counties. In late December 2006, CVLT closed an easement on 21 acres in Harris County, GA that will permanently protect the viewshed from Grey Rock Road.

Camp Meeting Rock Conservation Easement

Another long-term effort brought to fruition was a conservation easement on Camp Meeting Rock  in Heard County, Georgia. CVLT worked actively with The Nature Conservancy and the Georgia Department of transportation for over three years to protect a 110 acre tract of granite outcropping in Heard County known as Camp Meeting Rock.

For more information on how we can help you protect your land, please contact:

Mark Pentecost
(256) 447-1006; pentecostm@allantrust.org

Board of Directors

Jim Butler
Edward Callaway
Ben Cheek
LuAnn Craighton
Ken Henson, Jr., President
Tony Link
Mat Swift
John Turner, Secretary
Jennifer Wellborn
Will White

CVLT's record year in 2007, with over 9,000 acres placed under conservation easements in its service delivery area,  brings total lands protected by CV LT to nearly 18,000 acres.