The Cascade Land Conservancy, the leading land conservation group in the state, announced that it was changing its name to Forterra Tuesday.

The name came from a list of hundreds of recommendations. It means “for the earth.”

The name is better fitting, because the group has since moved from just doing land conservancy, and it now also serves the Olympic Peninsula.

Since Forterra was founded in 1989, it’s come to conserve more than 173,000 acres of rural and working land.

The group’s mission expanded in 2005 with the Cascade Agenda, which focused on long-range, regional development goals with cities.The group now also helps establish community gardens and push Complete Streets initiatives.

“With policy work entering the cities and conservation work reaching across the state, we as an organization noted the need to change,” said Peter Orser, the Forterra board chair. “Forterra better encompasses all the work we’re doing and leaves us room to continue evolving to serve the needs of this dynamic region.”