Remembering Harriet Burgess

American Land Conservancy is sad to announce the loss of its visionary founder, Harriet Burgess, who passed away on Monday, April 19. Harriet served as president of ALC until 2005, and continued to serve on the board in an emeritus status after her retirement.

Over the course of more than three decades of tireless conservation work, Harriet Burgess protected in excess of 480,000 acres of wildlife habitat, working farms and ranches, parks and open space, and outdoor recreation areas. She began her career in the early 1970s, volunteering for the Washington DC-based chapter of the Sierra Club. She went on to serve as a legislative assistant for Bay Area congressman, Pete Stark, and then worked as a senior vice president of the Trust for Public Land from 1978 to 1990.

Harriet founded ALC on Earth Day (April 22) 1990. Through ALC she directed her passion and boundless energy for conservation into projects across the country, never shying from the sometimes considerable challenges required to protect the land she so loved. The legacy of her efforts is found in the wild and beautiful parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and other public lands she conserved from the north woods of Maine to the mighty Mississippi, to the wilds of Montana, to the California coast.

In Harriet’s final year as president of ALC, she oversaw what came to be the largest conservation agreement in the history of California, the 82,000-acre Hearst Ranch project, which opened up 18 miles of public trail and protected land containing nearly every type of habitat found in California, including grasslands, chaparral, oak and pine forests, as well as a working cattle ranch. As a result of Harriet’s work on the Hearst Ranch project, ALC was awarded the California Governor’s Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in 2006, the state’s highest environmental honor.

During her career, Harriet also served on the National Academy of Sciences, reviewing the prioritization of federal land acquisitions. In 1995 she was honored with the Chevron-Times Mirror Magazine’s Environmental award, and in 1999 received the Women Entrepreneur of the Year award from the San Francisco chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners.

For Harriet, there was no higher calling than conserving the land for future generations. “The land we save is our legacy,” she said on many occasions. “It’s what we give to our children.” The skill, tenacity, and passion she brought to conserving the natural world ensured a legacy that few will ever match.

Current ALC president, Kerry O’Toole commented, “We are deeply saddened at the loss of Harriet, coming nearly 20 years to the day of the founding of ALC. She can’t be here to help us celebrate our many great successes, but we know she would have been proud, as we are of her. Harriet was a mentor and a friend and gave me my start at ALC. Her fiery dedication to preserving America’s natural heritage is a continuing inspiration to me and to everyone who knew her. All of us at ALC are honored to carry on her crucial work.”