The Executive Director of the Bayou Land Conservancy, Jill Bouillion, will be our speaker at the February meeting of the Lake Houston Gardeners. The meeting is on Monday, Feb. 12 at the Good Shepherd Episcopal Church in Kingwood. Social time is at 6:30 p.m. with the program starting at 7 p.m., followed by a plant exchange. The Microlife order is due on this date, and a sign up sheet for the club’s next outing to Maas and Jimbo’s Nurseries on March 1 will also be available.
Jill Boullion lives in the fast-developing suburbs of Houston, TX and has served as Executive Director at Bayou Land Conservancy (BLC) since September 2016. BLC’s mission is to preserve land along streams for flood control, clean water, and wildlife. Since joining BLC, Jill has helped the organization hone its focus for more strategic conservation in a large region. She oversees a staff of five people managing more than 15,000 acres of preserved land in southeast Texas, including land ownership, conservation easements, very popular public preserves and trails, and programs and partnerships that increase environmental knowledge in a diverse community. Jill leads the organization’s development activities as well as policy and advocacy initiatives. She’s been an active member of Land Trust Alliance’s Policy Ambassador group.
Before coming to BLC, Jill was the Executive Director of Greens Bayou Coalition, a watershed organization working on quality-of-life issues in Harris County, TX. During her time there she led a successful effort to bring $55m in federal funds to the watershed for flood mitigation projects, worked on park projects, and established a paddle trail of more than 20 miles. Before entering the non-profit world, Jill owned a graphic design & marketing firm that worked primarily with business-to-business clients in the oil & gas, tech, and oil field services arena.
Jill is a native Nebraskan and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. She grew up in a small farming community, near the birthplace of famous prairie author Willa Cather. Her love of nature comes from growing up on the prairie and spending summers in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. She is a certified Professional Community & Economic Developer, which means she’s trained in asset-based community development. She brings that passion for working with a diverse community for the highest good to her land conservation work at BLC. She loves to travel, hike, read, and cheer on Nebraska Volleyball and the Houston Astros. She wants to leave the world a better place for her grandchildren, Carlito and Teresa.
