LTA's plan

The Washington Post has coverage on LTA's plans to tighten training and accreditation.
A national conservation group announced yesterday that it is launching a $3 million program to improve ethics and governance at the nation's 1,500 land trusts. The Land Trust Alliance, the nation's leading association of conservation organizations, is bankrolling the effort largely through a $1 million challenge grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. The grant will help the alliance train and accredit conservation groups, part of a broad effort to improve professionalism and weed out rogue nonprofits.
"We cannot allow a few bad apples to stop thousands of private land owners, working farmers and ranchers, and local communities from protecting America's natural areas and landscapes," Rand Wentworth, president of the Washington-based alliance, said in a statement. "Accreditation can meet two important goals -- to build strong and enduring land trusts and to create a seal of approval that publicly recognizes their good work.
Details still haven't been nailed down, and the LTA is still gathering comments on the plan until May 9.