Land Trusts
What is a land trust ?
Land trusts are local, regional, or statewide organizations working to preserve land important to the communities and regions where they operate. Land trusts are private individuals responding to local conservation needs. They give people a way to work together toward important shared values; and they exist in cities and rural and suburban areas in every state in the nation.
There are many types of land trusts. The mission of each is different, protecting a certain place, or species, or type of ecosystem in their region. Some are agricultural, some are within urban boundaries, some protect species, some create recreation for humans. Each responds to a desire to preserve the benefits of our diverse natural world in a particular region.
“Land trusts are not “trusts” in the legal sense. Some, in fact, refer to themselves by other names such as conservancies, foundations, or associations. Land trusts accept donations of properties, buy land, or help landowners establish legal restrictions that limit harmful use and development. Land trusts may own and manage properties, monitor the restrictions they have helped establish for land owners, and/or work in partnership with other agencies.
The land trust movement has grown dramatically as more and more people recognize the need to protect lands that are important to them before they are lost forever. Today there are more than 1200 land trusts in America. Combined, their approximately one million members and financial supporters have protected more than 4.7 million acres of land. Beyond this desire to protect land, land trusts vary tremendously. Some concentrate on protecting land that has natural value, some on land with historic value, some on farmland, some on forests, others on scenic viewsheds and so forth. Their area of concern may be as small as a township, a watershed or a specific mountain. Larger land trusts may define their areas of interest by habitat type, county, state, or even national lines.”