Andrea Lawrence's Big Dream

July 21, 2005

    Andrea Mead Lawrence doesn’t do things halfway. The Olympic gold medalist’s Andrea Lawrence Institute for Mountains and Rivers (ALIMAR, www.alimar.org), founded in 2003, aims for a cohesive vision for the Eastern Sierra that integrates environmental values with economic vitality—and the political will, finances and people to bring that vision to life.
    It hasn’t turned out quite that way.
    A 2004 workshop was a good start. Some of those involved have been working on affordable housing, economic, and natural resources projects. Andrea’s ultimate dream: to see development rights removed from 320,000 acres of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power land.
    One way to do that is to bring in experts who could help define, explain and negotiate conservation easements, she said. Orrin Sage, who has been working with ALIMAR, recently helped negotiate the monumental Hearst Ranch $90 million conservation easement.
    But larger fundraising goals remain just that: goals.
    “We need some big donors,” she said recently. “If we could get a couple hundred thousand dollars for a period of three years, we’d be set.”