Three Rivers Land Trust has received a $2,000 grant from the Cabarrus County Community Foundation to help with the development of the Leopold Society youth initiative.

The money is administered through the Foundation for the Carolinas.

The grant will go toward development of The Leopold Society, a sixth- through 12th-grade initiative created and managed by Three Rivers Land Trust with a mission to build the next generation of conservationists.

Land Trust has developed partnerships with two schools in Cabarrus County, Carolina International School and Stonewall Jackson Youth Development Center. The grant will be used to fund student conservation work.

The Leopold Society is a passport program developed to provide local students and teachers with conservation guidelines to follow throughout the year. The students take general guidelines and technical support provided by Land Trust and its partners to create their own conservation blueprint centered on environmental education, getting out of the classroom and into the outdoors, and conservation-related community service.

“Three Rivers Land Trust is grateful to the Cabarrus County Community Foundation for supporting our efforts to develop The Leopold Society in Cabarrus County,” said Executive Director Travis Morehead.

“We firmly believe in connecting youth to local conservation so that there will always be citizens of the Central Piedmont who care for our region’s natural resources. The Leopold Society is a wonderful way to connect students with the outdoors. We believe that a love and appreciation for the natural world is best developed through immersion, and that is what we hope to provide through the Leopold Society.”

Three Rivers Land Trust has enrolled more than 300 students from schools across the Piedmont region in The Leopold Society.

To learn more about the Leopold Society or how you can support Three Rivers Land Trust, contact Sam Parrott at 704-647-0302 or sam@threeriverslandtrust.org.