Welcome Lina Clifford - Land Steward

This winter, we welcomed to our staff a familiar face with the hiring of Lina.

 Lina, a graduate of SUNY Geneseo in 2020 with a degree in geography and minors in environmental studies and history, joined our staff as a land steward to support nature preserve maintenance and baseline documentation for new conservation projects.

 During her time at SUNY Geneseo, Lina completed a formal internship with the Conservancy, mapping the land parcels and natural resources as part of the protection of the Christiano Farm project in Leicester.

 Before and since that internship, Lina volunteered in her free time through the Friends Of Recreation, Conservation and Environmental Stewardship (F.O.R.C.E.S.), a club at SUNY Geneseo that assists the Conservancy annually with invasive species removals and tree planting on nature preserves  among its many environmental related workdays. 

 Lina also found opportunities to focus class projects on the Conservancy.  Her report “Geospatial Analysis of Genesee Valley Conservancy Protected Lands” helped visually articulate the history and growth of the organization’s land protection work as part of a senior level geography class.

 The addition of Lina this year has not only provided additional staff hours to keep up with our work -- such as maintenance of our nature preserves -- she has increased efficiency of our field work documenting new conservation projects.  A new tablet device allows Lina to load maps of the property she is visiting and take notes and photos while walking the land.  When back at the office, the photos and notes are referenced to the maps for easy compilation into the reports we need.