A letter from Greg Abernathy, KNLT Executive Director
Dear Friends of Kentucky Natural Lands Trust,
As the wildflowers and warblers are returning, I have been reflecting on connectivity and how now, as always, being connected is essential. Writer and conservationist Terry Tempest Williams states this so poetically,
“To be whole. To be complete. Wildness reminds us what it means to be human, what we are connected to rather than what we are separate from.”
Connection to wildness, to more than human life, to landscapes, to place and to each other is central to our being on this one Earth we all share. We risk peril if we forget our connectedness. Appreciation of these connections leads to affection, and when we love something we tend to protect it. This is affirmed by Kentucky farmer, writer and KNLT Advisor Wendell Berry in The Unsettling of America, where he asserts,
“The care of the earth is our most ancient and most worthy and, after all, our most pleasing responsibility. To cherish what remains of it, and to foster its renewal, is our only legitimate hope.”
This letter is for everyone who cares about wild places. I ask for your continued generosity towards our wildlands conservation mission. Your partnership is essential to ensure that our work continues, and that a wilder world is ahead.
People and our planet are facing global biodiversity loss, increasing climate impacts and fragmented communities. Plants, animals, fungi, wildlands, waterways and our home places are under unprecedented pressure and threats. We must take action now to address these intertwined crises by expanding and accelerating conservation.
In Central Appalachia and across Kentucky local conservation actions have global significance because of the extraordinary biodiversity of our home place. Kentucky Natural Lands Trust takes a holistic approach to conservation that has made a remarkable impact since our formation in 1995.
Now thirty years into this mission, we have grown from protecting the largest remaining old growth forest in the Commonwealth to a conservation movement that has protected 60,000 acres of wildlands.
This original painting is by Lina Tharsing, a Kentucky-based artist who is a partner in our conservation work. Lina’s painting is inspired by the ancient old growth of Blanton Forest, the wild place that launched KNLT. This forest is a sanctuary for nature and people that is illustrative of what we can accomplish together.
Join KNLT in celebrating three decades of conservation, 60,000 acres of protected wildlands and the power of partnership. Your contributions, alongside thousands of people and partners, have made our conservation successes possible. Please continue to support this wild mission, for today and for the future. DONATE TODAY
With gratitude and peace you find in wild places,
Greg Abernathy
KNLT Executive Director
[email protected]
Photo: Blanton Forests, Antonio Vizcaino for the book Wildlands Philanthropy
Lina Tharsing, Ancient Forest, oil on canvas 19”x14” 2025
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