| Land Conservation
Jeff Masten is the Co-Founder of Bluestem Conservation Cemetery as well as a Conservation Consultant and Partner with LANDMATTERS. He previously served as the Director of Conservation Strategies for Triangle Land Conservancy, a land trust located in Raleigh, NC. He directed the conservation planning, land protection and stewardship programs for TLC covering the six county “Triangle” region, home of Research Triangle Park. Jeff coordinated an active conservation program with numerous federal, state, county and local public and private partners and funders. He managed a staff of 7 conservationists identifying, protecting and stewarding important conservation land. Under Jeff’s leadership the conservation program at TLC increased the acreage protected 5x, increased the annual number of conservation projects 4x and developed two new NC State Park units.
Jeff holds an MS in Urban and Regional Planning from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a BS in Finance from Northeastern University in Boston. He spent five years in the US Army in Germany, and spent three years working for BASF in Boston as a national logistics manager. Jeff is a native of New Hampshire, but for the last 11 years has called NC his home. Although not a native Tarheel, Jeff, his wife and three children have grown to call NC their home.
In North Carolina, productive land is being lost to development while more people are seeking locally grown foods. Triangle Land Conservancy, a community land trust, is encouraging the use of its lands for food production by offering long-term leases to new farmers.