Jean Hocker named to board of The Wilderness Land Trust

Carbondale, CO – Jean Hocker, a nationally recognized expert in land conservation, has joined the Board of Directors of The Wilderness Land Trust, announced Reid Haughey, the organization’s president.

 

Now a consultant, Hocker was president and CEO of the national Land Trust Alliance from 1987 to 2002. During that time, she led the association of land trusts in building shared ethics, expectations and tools that melded them into a highly effective conservation force while retaining their grassroots distinctions. The number of land trust organizations in the United States grew by more than 70 percent during her tenure, and the amount of open space the trusts protected more than tripled.

 

Hocker also oversaw development of land trust standards and practices, training programs and publications on land trust operations and conservation strategies. Last, she guided policy efforts to increase support and incentives for land conservation.

 

 “We’re honored and very fortunate to have an individual of such stature in the field join our Board,” Haughey said. “Clearly she’ll bring to the table a wealth of information understanding the often complex issues of acquiring and preserving lands for the public trust.”

 

Hocker’s expertise includes issues related to inholdings, or privately owned pockets of property within protected lands. In 2004, she conducted a study for the National Park Foundation of inholdings in Grand Teton National Park, followed by a study of potential private capital for inholding protection.

 

“That experience goes right to the heart of what we do here at The Wilderness Land Trust,” Haughey said. “We couldn’t ask for a better qualified Board candidate.”

 

Hocker, in turn, expressed delight about serving on the Trust’s Board, whose mission is to acquire private lands in current and proposed wilderness areas from willing sellers and to transfer them to public ownership for permanent protection. Since it was founded in 1992, the Trust has preserved more than 31,000 acres of wilderness in 76 areas in the Western U.S.

 

“I’ve had a decades-long passion for natural lands,” Hocker said. “In my work, I’ve seen what can happen when vulnerable land isn’t protected. Development can destroy the pristine quality that makes our wilderness areas so special.”

 

“It’s a pleasure to be part of a well-respected organization that is accomplishing so much in protecting vulnerable areas within the wilderness system,” she continued.

 

Hocker is president of Conservation Service Co., LLC, a consulting firm based in Alexandria, Va., where her work draws on more than 30 years of experience with land conservation and nonprofit organizations. She provides a range of management and conservation advice to organizations and agencies across the country.

 

She currently serves on the 15-member Land Trust Accreditation Commission, an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance.  She is a member of the National Council of the National Parks Conservation Association and of the Advisory Councils of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation and the Northern Virginia Conservation Trust.  She completed two terms on the board of the University of Wyoming’s Ruckelshaus Institute of Environment & Natural Resources and served for many years on the board of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.

 

In addition to her work with the Land Trust Alliance, Hocker’s background includes serving from 1980 to ’87 as founding executive director of the Jackson Hole Land Trust in Wyoming. As such, she launched a successful program of protecting ranch lands and habitat adjacent to Grand Teton National Park, primarily through the use of conservation easements.

 

Hocker is a graduate of Boston University, where she was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.  She lives in Alexandria with her husband Phil, with whom she has long enjoyed backpacking, hiking and canoeing, often in wilderness areas.