A report on CWPT meeting in Ky.

We asked Charlie Crawford, head of the preservation group Georgia Battlefields Association, his impressions of the recent meeting of the Civil War Preservation Trust in Lexington, Ky.

"Lexington is a historic city: the cemetery alone is a Civil War tour, with Henry Clay, John Hunt Morgan, John C. Breckinridge, Gordon Granger, and most of Mary Todd Lincoln's family buried there.

"Kentucky has done a good job of preserving and adding to the Perryville battlefield. Madison County has made great efforts to preserve the Richmond Battlefield. Two examples where a state/commonwealth and a local government have stepped up in the absence of federal preservation.

"[President] Jim Lighthizer's speech focused on having CWPT save 50,000 acres by the end of the Sesquicentennial in 2015. CWPT has saved 29,000 acres in 20 years, so 21,000 more in five years is ambitious; but goals should be set high.

"CWPT got a four-star rating from Charity Navigator. Revenue is up 20% in 2010 compared to 2009, which is notable in a down economy.

"Georgia Battlefields Association was well-represented. We had at least eight members at the conference, including three of the six members of the board of trustees."

-- Charlie Crawford, GBA