Meet the Team: Land Conservation Manager Chris Starker

This is a feature from the Fall/Winter 2024-2025 issue of the Upstate Advocate, Upstate Forever's twice-yearly publication. To read a digital copy of the complete publication, please click here.

I have never adapted to the emptiness I feel when a familiar forest or a farm is suddenly cleared for a new development. Areas that once provided certain glimpses of beauty, pastoral calm, or breathtaking vistas, once lost are lost forever. Even a vacant lot has the potential to serve the community as a park, for example, but once paved over has no more opportunities for agriculture, recreation, habitat, or even scenic enjoyment. As they say, “They aren’t making more land.”

The Upstate is my home. This is where I live, and the work we do at Upstate Forever is something I truly believe in. There’s a reason why this is one of the fastest growing places in the country and I take immense pride in working to make sure the Upstate continues to be an attractive, special place in the world.

As Land Conservation Manager, I work with landowners to protect their land, which can be a very complex process. Essentially, the landowners donate or sell their development rights to Upstate Forever — a nationally-accredited land trust recognized by the Land Trust Alliance — which leaves their property in its current natural state in perpetuity, whether that’s farmland, forest land, or open space. Together we fashion a legal instrument to ensure that remains true forever and ever.

This work can also be slow-moving. Sometimes when I’m feeling overwhelmed or disappointed in the lack or slow pace of progress, I like to take a few minutes to just stare at a clock and watch the seconds tick by. It doesn’t take long for five minutes to pass, and I’m reminded that all the little things add up to something bigger, every second is an opportunity to make a difference.

My role consists of lots of meetings, lots of phone calls, and lots of writing, but once in a while a little bit of walking in the woods, too. The results are more than rewarding. Every landowner, every landscape, and every conservation easement is different, but the look on each landowner’s face when we have closed on a conservation easement and protected their property in perpetuity is always the same. Their body language says it all — happiness, joy, elation. It’s a beautiful moment.