New England Forestry Foundation, Executive Director

Ryan Owens, has been selected as the Executive Director of The New England Forestry Foundation, America’s sixth-largest land trust with more than 1.2 million acres conserved.

Owens comes to NEFF from the Monadnock Conservancy, an accredited land trust serving 39 towns in southwest New Hampshire, where he’s worked since 2006 and has served as executive director since 2008. Under his leadership, the Monadnock Conservancy has more than doubled its conserved acreage, which now totals more than 24,000 acres.

Owens was a co-founding director of the New Hampshire Land Trust Coalition, which advances land conservation through professional development, policy advocacy and education, and he serves on the Leadership Council of the Land Trust Alliance.

Holding a master’s degree from the Field Naturalist Program at the University of Vermont, Owens studied natural resource inventory and interpretation with an eye to applying science and communication to land conservation challenges. Prior to that, he worked in nonprofit development with The Wilderness Society in Boston. He holds an undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College, where he studied ecology and environmental studies. Owens lives in Walpole, N.H. with his wife and son.

Read the full announcement here.

Kennedy Kearney-Fischer led this search with Afi Tettey-Fio, Rachel Banderob, Maya Bennett, Rebecca Barton, Laura Salomons, and Carla Crapster.