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Brian Price, Executive Director, has been the Leelanau Conservancy’s executive director since our inception in 1988. “Since the day he walked through the door when we were trying to get this off the ground, we knew he was the one who could execute our vision of protecting this beautiful peninsula” says Bobbie Collins, who founded the Conservancy with her husband, Ed, Brian sets the standard for integrity when it comes to dealing with landowners, units of government, the press, staff and all of our supporters. His primary focus these days takes in strategic planning for conservation, working with landowners in new, creative and innovative ways, guiding the land protection staff through complicated yet opportunistic bureaucratic red tape, and raising funds from major donors.

Brian attended Oberlin College from 1968 to 1972, receiving a BS degree in Geology. Prior to his work for the Leelanau Conservancy Brian spent 15 years as a commercial fisherman on Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. Brian has conducted fisheries research for Michigan Sea Grant, and worked for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians in training tribal fishermen to use trap nets in catching whitefish.

Brian has served on Cleveland Township’s Planning Commission since 1994, and serves as a director of several other non-profit organizations including the Land Information Access Association in Traverse City and the Heart of the Lakes Center for Conservation Policy, a statewide organization composed of land conservancies. Brian also owns and manages a 160-acre tree farm and vineyard in Leelanau County with his wife, Susan. They have four children.

Articles from the Director