HLT President Harry Webster has long been an advocate of establishing new partnerships within the community. Reaching out to the community expands our thinking, gets our success stories out to a broader audience, provides us with land stewardship volunteers, and creates new opportunities to promote land conservation.

Saving Harford’s dwindling open land is an overwhelming challenge. It demands, as never before, that we draw on every existing resource and devise new ones. It requires that we use those resources in creative, cost-effective combinations that respond to the needs of both land and people.  It is important that we advance our success through community networking programs and shared ideas.  It is critical that we involve the community in our planning, enjoyment of our protected lands, and project funding.

Successful partnerships succeed when the partners share fundamental goals and visions of success; when each partner brings, and is willing to use, skills and resources that the others don’t have; and when the results of working together are likely to be better than any partner could achieve alone.

Favorites among Harry’s partnerships are those involving environmental education for children, our future land stewards.  The future of land conservation and responsible stewardship of our resources will either fall into or through the hands of today’s children.  It is to everyone’s benefit that we help to connect them to land and the adventures to be found outdoors while expanding our visibility in the community.