Conference Fee: The $500 conference fee, paid to Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, includes all facilitation, and most meals and snacks Tuesday breakfast through Thursday dinner. 

Lodging: SOLC has arranged a group rate (at the federal per diem rate) with our host venue, the Ashland Hills Hotel, at $533 (inclusive of all taxes and fees) for the four nights of the Summit. Colleagues can opt to share a room to keep costs down.

SOLC is sponsoring two shared hotel rooms for participants whose land trusts cannot cover the $533 lodging; these rooms will be offered at $50 per person for the four nights of the Summit.

Food: Participants will be responsible for purchasing food on their travel days, and for Tuesday dinner (when we will carpool into downtown Ashland, where folks can choose their own restaurant) and Wednesday breakfast (when food will be available at the hotel’s cafe before we head into the field). All other meals and snacks Tuesday breakfast through Thursday dinner are covered by the conference fee.

Travel: Participants are responsible for planning and booking their own travel. SOLC will provide free ground transportation to and from the closest airport, MFR (Medford), for those flying in.

Although the focus of the Summit has historically been K-12 education, we believe strongly in “birth to earth” learning as a cornerstone of long-term community support for conservation. We also know that land trust educators can’t do their work alone. For this reason, anyone who facilitates land-based education programs or supports them in some way — from frontline educators, volunteer coordinators, and outreach managers to land stewards, development directors, executive leadership, and Board members — is welcome to attend. The more diverse our group, the richer our conversations will be!

To maximize the organization-specific visioning and strategic planning time that is a key component of our week together, we encourage organizations to send two or more representatives to the Summit if at all possible.

Start by completing the short application form (available here) to indicate your interest in participating — please only fill in one application per organization. After SOLC staff have reviewed your application, we will send you a registration form. Please note that if you are requesting reduced-rate lodging, we will be in touch in late November.

November 15 - Application deadline for reduced-rate rooms

December 31 - General application deadline

February 1 - Registration & payment deadline

I can say with confidence the growth and trajectory of our youth programming at Hudson Taconic Lands is thanks in large part to the mentorship, resources, and community the K-12 Leadership Summit gave me. I feel like the work we're doing now is thoughtful, sustainable, evidence based, and the impact of it this work will be as enduring as our land trusts conservation work. We're motivated and inspired by our colleagues across the country.
—Michala Hendrick, Hudson Taconic Lands, New York

Attending Summit was an amazing chance to share experiences and brainstorm with other people working in similar jobs. I was able to bring back a lot of new ideas for how to make my organization's programming better, and now I'm connected to an awesome network of people who I can keep bouncing ideas off of.
— Anna Rodgers, Yakona Nature Preserve & Learning Center, Oregon

The K-12 Summit provided an invaluable opportunity to learn from other land trusts across the country, while focusing on exploring the possibilities to leverage the resources we have within our own communities—land, partner organizations, schools and more—to map out the expansion of our own programs in the future.
—Charli Williams, Lemhi Regional Land Trust, Idaho

As a small land trust just launching a systematic K-12 outreach, this workshop was invaluable to learn from other experts and build a continuous support network to sustain and grow our programs.
—MaryAnn Rozum, Western Wildlife Corridor, Ohio

I am increasingly feeling really privileged and honored to have joined this cohort.  The take-aways are still revealing themselves; supportive, potent and greatly appreciated.
—Leah Trommer, Coastal Mountains Land Trust, Maine

After attending this summit, I was able to find myself, my why, and my purpose. Through impacting my life by providing an opportunity I never could have had otherwise, and convincing me to stick with it, Rob’s hard work in this summit has in turn positively affected the lives of nearly one hundred teens in the court systems and foster care. And I’m just one of so many educators who found this same solace.
—Andrea Foster, Little Forks Conservancy, Michigan

Rob Wade was a founding board member of the Feather River Land Trust. Since 2004 he has been the creator and coordinator of Learning Landscapes, FRLT’s nationally recognized K-12 program that engages every public school student throughout the region. He has worked in local schools since 1995 focused on place-based learning, environmental literacy, teacher development, and land stewardship. Rob has been facilitating the K-12 land trust Community of Practice in collaboration with the Land Trust Alliance and other land trust leaders since 2016.

Leia Lowery has worked in education for over 20 years. Her commitment to engaging whole communities in conservation has led to the expansion of the Trust in Education program at Kennebunkport Conservation Trust in Maine and the development of the Kennebunkport Climate Initiative. Spreading her passion for conservation through place-based education connects people to their local landscape, their local heritage and each other, creating a stronger sense of place and encouraging a future of empowered conservationists.

Tara Laidlaw has worked at the intersection of outdoor and classroom learning for nearly 20 years. In her role at Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, she specializes in using nature journaling to help students of all ages establish a sense of place and a sense of wonder, while also developing scientific, language, social-emotional, and ecological literacies. Tara serves as the board chair for the Environmental Education Association of Oregon (the state affiliate with NAAEE) and she sits on the board of the Coalition of Oregon Land Trusts. She joined the K-12 land trust Community of Practice in 2023.

Myco Schroeder supports youth and volunteer groups in fostering a greater sense of wilderness awareness and connection through Nature Journaling and stewardship projects. As a certified Naturalist and Outdoor Educator Myco celebrates the reciprocal learning experience between facilitator and participant with curiosity and gratitude. Myco is living out their passion in sharing magical moments outside while caring for the natural world. 

Stasie Maxwell is the Indigenous Partnerships Program Manager for Vesper Meadow Education Program and brings a wealth of experience to her position; blending her various backgrounds in psychology, program development, community building, DEI and Indigenous wellness facilitation, and environmental advocacy. Stasie is excited to bring her expertise, insight, and strategic planning capabilities to Southern Oregon Land Conservancy, in particular, to serve the Indigenous descendants of the homelands that SOLC stewards.

In March 2020, Rob Wade and the Feather River Land Trust hosted the first-ever Summit in Plumas County, California, with facilitated program planning and professional development for land trust educators from around the country. Since then, FRLT has hosted the program every year, developing it into an annual opportunity for practitioners to gather for peer-to-peer mentoring, camaraderie, and inspiration, in addition to program design, professional development, and strategic planning.

Founder Rob Wade says: “We have worked hard to forge a community built upon respect, trust, and a commitment to share resources, including care and connection with our fellow colleagues.”

Southern Oregon Land Conservancy is delighted to carry on this tradition as the first new Summit host. Our hope is that other land trusts will take on this role in the future, with the Summit traveling nationwide to maximize access and inclusion in the Community of Practice.

Beyond the Summit itself, in 2026, the Land Trust Alliance plans to launch a learning pathway to support the Community of Practice that Rob and FRLT began, taking the connection and collaboration into the digital realm for all land trust educators, not just those who have attended an in-person Summit.

Programming on Tuesday and Thursday will take place at the Ashland Hills Hotel in an ADA-accessible conference room.

Programming on Wednesday will include visits to the SOLC office (indoors) and Pompadour Bluff (outdoors). The trail to the top of Pompadour Bluff is short but rustic and steep in some parts; participants will have the option to stay at the unpaved parking area for facilitated activities there. The main entry to the SOLC meeting space has two stairs with no hand rail. The building does have an alternate entry with no stairs, but that route includes going down a narrow hallway to get to the meeting space.

Please reach out to Tara at tara@landconserve.org for more details or to discuss accessibility needs.