What is your role at TLC? As the Associate Director of Land Protection (West), I meet with landowners interested in conservation options for their properties and explore funding opportunities to save more land for tomorrow. I cover Durham, Orange, Chatham, and Lee Counties’ projects and help manage the Good Ground Initiative.
Favorite TLC Preserve? Brumley Nature Preserve! This preserve is such a great example of how our many partnerships foster large scale conservation projects with positive impacts for our natural and human communities. I came to TLC a couple years before this preserve opened to the public so I got to be involved in managing volunteers to help build trails, leading hikes to build enthusiasm before opening, planning and executing the grand opening attended by 1,300 people, and eventually adding additional acreage to this critical conservation corridor!
Margaret Sands joined TLC as the Membership and Outreach Coordinator in December 2015. She worked on strengthening TLC’s membership program and forming community partnerships to reach more people with the great work TLC has been doing for three years. Inspired by our ambitious goals for inspiring 25,000 acres by 2025, she transitioned to the Land Protection Department at the end of 2018 to work on acquiring more land for conservation. She is also very involved in TLC’s efforts to use conservation tools to address issues of land loss and unattainable land prices for communities of color through the Good Ground Initiative.
Originally from coastal South Carolina, Margaret grew up among stunning natural landscapes that shaped and divided human history and continues to do so. A B.A. in Environmental Studies from Loyola New Orleans taught her the devastating results of environmental mismanagement. An M.A. in International Environmental Policy from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies in Monterey, CA, demonstrated it was time to take what she’d learned and hurry back to the South, where she worked as a Project Manager at the nonprofit environmental law firm South Carolina Environmental Law Project. Now a proud Durham enthusiast, she’s excited to help ensure that everyone has access to open space, local food, and clean water as the Triangle grows.
