By Bo Howes, Director of Conservation, West
Over 10 years ago, I had the privilege of sitting in our interviews for a new employee. Margaret Sands was interviewed to be our new Outreach and Events Coordinator. She had fantastic conservation experience and an educational background in environmental work. I wasn’t as sold on her events management, but boy, was I proved wrong.
An early interaction Margaret had with the conservation staff was the opening of the Brumley property. We envisioned this as a nice, relatively small event, hoping to have 200-300 people show up and appreciate our new nature preserve. Margaret was in charge and planned for more, from parking to food trucks, to guided hikes and bike rides. We should have seen it coming – there were thousands of people at the event. But Margaret’s plan worked and this massive event went as smoothly as can be expected and brought a multitude of new supporters to TLC.
Margaret joined TLC pre-Covid, so our staff was all in the office most days. Sharing an office kitchen with Margaret, you get to learn all about composting, fermentation, and how to avoid food waste. Regular office contact also meant I got to learn how connected Margaret is to the TLC values that I have seen in my years with the organization. We make it a point to work together for our community, learn from our successes and our mistakes, steward our land, and to always act with the highest ethical standards.
When we decided to expand our land protection staff, Margaret was a natural fit for the new position. She may or may not have been tiring of the outreach position, but she was not tired of being at TLC. When I heard she might be interested in joining the Land Protection team, I jumped at the chance to keep this smart, hardworking, and fun person to work with at TLC. I had to apologize to Christine (TLC’s Director of Advancement) for cannibalizing her department, and I think I had to agree to serve on three search committees to find staff to take on all Margaret’s responsibilities.
Early in Margaret’s time with Land Protection, she called me from a visit to one of our properties, with some concern about an abandoned vehicle she found at the site. I did nothing to help alleviate her concern by asking if she had checked to see if there was a body in the vehicle. Fortunately, it was just abandoned, but Margaret knew at that moment she was no longer working in outreach!
Since that time, Margaret has developed into a land protection guru. She knows the ins and outs of finding funding for the most unlikely projects. She can charm the socks off of a county commissioner and get them to commit funding to protect farmland for years to come.
The maturation from a newbie with a strong commitment to TLC’s conservation values to an experienced land protection professional has been a joy to watch. All TLC projects come with a unique set of challenges. One day you are convincing an 80-year-old farmer that the best long-term way to protect his farm is to place a conservation easement on the land and the next day you are trudging through a swamp with the landowner waxing poetic about their rare and endangered plant life. Across any situation, Margaret can connect with landowners and look for solutions that meet their needs.
It has been so much fun to watch Margaret grow in her role with TLC. Taking on more and more responsibility, while learning that giving up some responsibilities makes her more effective too. I expect Margaret will pass me in the number of projects she has closed soon, if she hasn’t done so already. This is a testament to how well she does her work and how committed she is to seeing a project through.
Margaret’s growth and maturity are not just confined to her work. In her time at TLC, Margaret bought a house, got married, adopted a dog, raised chickens, and most recently, gave birth to her first child. That is a lot of personal milestones in 10 years. I am lucky to have had a ringside seat for both the personal and professional growth that she has made and look forward to seeing what the next ten years bring.
