ALPINE — School board member and longtime education activist Ann Pierce has taken the helm of the Back Country Land Trust, succeeding Don Hohimer as president of the local non-profit land conservancy.
    Pierce said she will focus on accomplishing the goals outlined in BCLT's Vision 2013 to “connect people to place.”
“In 2003, we created a vision for the organization that involves hands-on management of our preserves, expanding our education programs, and exploring partnerships with people, businesses, and governments with whom we haven't yet worked,” Pierce said. “These partnerships include stronger involvement with local youth. We’ve always had a strong link to students. Our Youth for Conservation Program has involved students from our local middle school as well as Granite Hills and Steele Canyon High Schools in environmental and public service projects.” In 2002, BCLT’s “Do Your Part for the Planet Day” complemented the efforts of AUSD staff members Jane Firth and JoAnn Binaci to raise awareness of the benefits of recycling.
     Pierce served on the PTA for 13 years, spent 10 years as an art docent in local schools, and chaired the Alpine Union School District Bond Measure Committee, which resulted in funding construction of the new Joan Mac Queen Middle School. She was appointed to fill a vacated seat in 2003 on the AUSD Board of Trustees. Following her appointment, she won the seat again in a regular election.
     Five years ago, Pierce and former board president and educator Yolaine Stout implemented a standards-based component of the sixth grade science curriculum, combining JMMS classroom instruction with walking field trips to the Wright’s Field Preserve next door. “We're excited to work with some incredible teachers who use Wright's Field for field lessons in science, history, and art, supplementing classroom instruction with hands-on learning, and expanding the opportunity for students to excel.
     A student herself, Pierce is working toward her master's degree in school counseling at San Diego State University. Her work this year in urban settings re-emphasized just how fortunate Alpine’s students are: “Our sixth grade curriculum focused largely on symbiosis, the cooperative, mutually beneficial relationships between species.” Pierce said. “Without question, the natural world holds incredible opportunities for learning, while allowing critical thinking skills to develop.”
     Education has always been an area of emphasis for the BCLT board. Educator Don Hohimer, who recently decided to take a year off from the board to settle in as a new principal at Hillsdale Middle School, spent nine years volunteering as a BCLT board member, five of them as board president. Under Hohimer's leadership, BCLT preserved almost 1,400 acres in San Diego’s Back Country worth an estimated $4.5 million. 
     Prior to that, Stout, a founding member of the land trust, served as president. A retired Granite Hills High School teacher, Stout said she remains committed to BCLT's mission and the preservation of Wright's Field.
Pierce has served as a member of the BCLT Board of Directors for 12 years and has worked closely with both her predecessors. “We are an organization whose entire board shares a commitment to youth. Kids are our greatest natural resource,” Pierce said.
     The land trust’s number one priority is protecting Wright's Field, a unique resource for Alpine and the Back Country, “getting our hands dirty with land management, and expanding our education programs with the students of Alpine,” Pierce said. “Wright's Field presents special opportunities for our kids — an outdoor classroom, living laboratory, recreation area, cultural resource, and living history experience, all in one relatively small package — and it's right in the center of town.
     “This is a great time for the land trust,” Ann said. “We've got some fantastic opportunities ahead of us and I'm looking forward to working with teachers, students and our neighbors to preserve our most important assets for the next generations to enjoy.”
     For further information, one may visit Back Country Land Trust..
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