The Haliburton Highlands Land Trust (HHLT) held its 2023 Annual General Meeting on June 19th via Zoom. The full minutes of the meeting, including the chair’s report, can be viewed here. Here are the highlights:
- Chair Shelley Hunt gave her annual report and mentioned:
- Grants and associated projects: We received more funding by TD’s Friends of the Environment to support our Discovery Days education programming. We completed the work associated with our most recent Species-at-Risk Stewardship Fund grant from the government of Ontario. We continue to extend our Habitat Stewardship Program grant from Environment and Climate Change Canada to support continued work in wetland mapping and evaluation. Crucially, the funds will continue building our Partners in Conservation program to protect more private land.
- Strategic Plan Renewal: with the Ontario Trillium Foundation’s Resilient Communities Fund grant, we hired consultants to guide us through strategic plan renewal process.
- Highlands Corridor Project: We continue to work through various channels to promote increased protection for the Highlands Corridor as part of a push to increase the protection of lands and waters in the Highlands beyond HHLT properties.
- Fundraising: Our annual fundraising event in 2022 was the wonderful “Birds of a Feather” concert by Drew Murray Allen at Abbey Gardens, accompanied by an online auction. We were also successful in increasing our donation revenue in 2022, doubling our money raised.
- Audited Financials: Tyson Shennett from Peter Shennett Professional Corporation stated that, for the seventh consecutive year, he gave a clean opinion that the HHLT financial statements fairly represent HHLT’s financial position as of December 31st, 2022. The financial statements were approved by the board.
- Election of Board: The following board members were elected or re-elected: Sheila Zyman, Mary-Lou Gerstl, Joan Duhaime, David Bathe, Shelley Hunt, Jennifer Dailloux, Ralph Baehre, Huw Morgan, Rob Halupka, and Todd Hall (new member). Shelley Hunt was confirmed as Interim Chair of the board. Due to work pressures, Shelley has been unable to commit as much time to the role as in the past and will stay on as Chair until someone else is willing and able to step into her role.
- Strategic Plan: The strategic plan completed in 2022 was approved by the board.