Manitoba at The Table
MHC Joins the National Conservation Conversation at the 2025 Canadian Land Trust Summit
Conservation doesn’t happen in isolation. The work of protecting land here in Manitoba – landowner by landowner, community by community – is part of a much larger national effort, and in November 2025, a group of our MHC team members travelled to Victoria, British Columbia to be part of it.
The 2025 Canadian Land Trust Summit, hosted by the Alliance of Canadian Land Trusts (ACLT) brought together land conservation leaders, practitioners, and changemakers from across the country. For MHC, attending wasn’t just an opportunity to learn, it was a statement of presence. Manitoba’s voice belongs in that national conversation, and we showed up to make sure it was heard.
A National Gathering for a National Mission
The ACLT summit is the premier annual gathering for land trusts and conservation organizations operating across Canada. This year’s theme, Conservation Through Communities, reflected something MHC knows well: that lasting land protection is built on relationships with landowners, neighbours, communities, and the broader public, not on any single organization working alone.
The summit brought together keynote speakers, hands-on workshops, and structured discussions covering everything from conservation easement best practices and emerging legal frameworks to Indigenous-led stewardship and the growing role of private land protection in meeting broader biodiversity commitments.
MHC has been quietly doing critical work across Manitoba for decades. Protecting native prairies, riparian corridors, wetlands, and the working landscapes that support both wildlife and rural communities. But the conservation movement in Canada is bigger than any one province, and the tools, ideas, and policy changes that shape what’s possible in Manitoba are often forged at gatherings like this one.
Being at the table means the MHC team can bring back fresh thinking on how other land trusts are approaching engagement, handling complex conservation agreements, securing long-term funding, and communicating the value of their work to the public. It also means that Manitoba’s unique conservation challenges and successes become part of the national picture.
Conservation in Canada is stronger when its practitioners know each other, learn from each other, and advocate together. Attending the summit is part of how MHC ensures that the work happening on the ground in our province is connected to the broader movement working to protect Canada’s natural heritage.
Bringing It Home
The connections made and ideas exchanged at events like the ACLT summit don’t stay in the conference room. They come back to Manitoba in the form of better tools, innovative ideas, stronger networks, and renewed energy for the work ahead. It helps shape things like the next conservation easement, the next landowner conversation, the next piece of prairie that gets to stay prairie.
For us, showing up nationally is ultimately about showing up locally. The landowners we work with deserve an organization that is engaged, informed, and connected to the best thinking in Canadian conservation. That’s the commitment we brought to BC, and the commitment we brought home.
