Our mission
We save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America. We envision a future where all Americans are inspired and empowered to conserve our lands and waters, fostering healthy, vibrant communities now and for future generations.
There are 1,281 active land trusts in urban and rural communities across the country.
As we look back on 2021, despite national and global hardships, it was a year of hope, inspiration and action in land conservation.
The Alliance and the land trust community made tangible progress toward developing a more inclusive conservation movement; addressing the impacts of our changing climate; protecting conservation donors’ rights to conserve their land; and strengthening land trusts across the nation.
The ongoing pandemic and social upheaval also led to a growing recognition of how our land trust community — and the lands we conserve — have a tremendous capacity to heal, foster wellness, and create social cohesion.
It’s time to come together for conservation in a big way.
The Alliance has set an audacious goal for land trusts to protect an additional 60 million acres by the end of 2030 as part of the broader 30x30 goal established by scientists and embraced by the federal government. That is 60 million acres (roughly the size of Colorado) of conserved forests, family farms and ranches, community parklands, wildlife habitat and land that filters and purifies drinking water.
To achieve this goal, the Alliance will ensure land trusts have the funding, tools and resources they need to accelerate the pace of land conservation. It is what this community needs to tackle today’s biodiversity, climate change and other environmental, social and human health crises.
These challenges can feel overwhelming at times for all of us. But we will move forward by taking full advantage of the land-based solutions that only the conservation sector can offer.
There is no force more capable of making that happen than our passionate supporters and the land trust community, all working in partnership with the Land Trust Alliance.
What we do matters now more than ever.
Together, we will continue to offer tangible, hopeful solutions to the societal challenges facing us today and tomorrow. Together, we will build the inclusive, equitable, diverse, powerful conservation community to which we all aspire. Our nation, its lands and all its people demand nothing less.
Thank you to our land trust community, supporters, business sponsors and our many partners that make all this incredible work possible.
Michael A. Polemis, Board Chair, Land Trust Alliance
Andrew Bowman, President & CEO, Land Trust Alliance
Support that only the Alliance can provide such as:
Leading nationwide advocacy. Setting standards to ensure land trust excellence and to earn the public’s trust. Providing insurance for easement defense. We also empower land conservation organizations to do more as their people become more skilled, connected and inspired. We train thousands of people every year. We develop leaders and catalyze partnerships. We share success stories and equip land trusts for accreditation.
Wentworth Leadership Program
Since 2010, 246 executive directors have completed the intensive two-year program.
Find a Land Trust
In 2021, we introduced our new Find a Land Trust website. This new and improved website better features our member land trusts and shows how land trusts are gaining ground across the nation.
Disability Inclusion Guide
Created in 2021, Open to All: A Disability Inclusion Guide for Land Trusts provides concrete steps to expand a land trust’s diversity, equity and inclusion efforts with an emphasis on people with disabilities.
The Learning Center
The Learning Center has long been a source of information, resources, training and connection for land trusts. The Alliance spent much of 2021 preparing for the 2022 launch of the new and improved Resource Center, which rolled out in September 2022.
Many resources are available to the public, providing knowledge and understanding of land conservation and land trusts.
In 2021, in partnership with our passionate supporters, the Land Trust Alliance achieved many success, including:
Meet Kaila
Kaila Dettman is the executive director for The Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County (accredited) in California.
As for so many land trusts, the pandemic made it difficult for Kaila’s organization to stay engaged with its supporters, partners and volunteers. With funding from an Alliance Excellence grant in 2021, Kaila was able to hire a communications consultant to coach new development staff.
“It boosted our capacity and our spirits. It meant we continued to connect with our supporters and our larger community, and we didn’t miss an incredible opportunity to preserve 900 acres of beachfront for public recreation access. Our town now has a community nature park, next to its most densely populated neighborhood. People can walk, ride horseback, bike, explore and play at Pismo Preserve, forever.
This project brought our community closer together. And I’m grateful for the Alliance’s support at such a pivotal moment.
Meet Hal
Hal Delaplane, president of Conservancy for Charles County in Maryland, is deeply committed to preserving Charles County’s rural character. Being an all-volunteer land trust can be challenging at times, yet, with the support of the Alliance, they have much to celebrate — community events and programs that connect people to the land, more than 1,800 acres conserved by passionate landowners and a strong stewardship program.
The Alliance is here for land trusts of all shapes and sizes, emphasizing local, community-based conservation work. As Hal put it, "While on the subject of member benefits, we are grateful to the Alliance for all the ways you support us. Without it, I think we little all-volunteer guys wouldn't last."
948-member land trusts and growing
With more support, land trusts can increase the pace of conservation — doubling the amount of land protected by 2030 — and ensure the base of support for conservation is strong.
In 2021, the Alliance worked with external marketing firms and representatives from the land trust community to advance a national digital campaign to elevate land conservation as a priority for a younger and more diverse group of Americans.
In December, we launched a redesigned Find a Land Trust site to connect people with their local land trusts. We developed campaign messaging, multiple videos for use in social media and on our website and a toolkit to help land trusts to participate, all leading to a campaign soft launch in April of 2022.
The Alliance is now gearing up for a full campaign launch in 2023 to bring more people to conservation and their local land trusts, something that wouldn’t be possible without the hard work of the 13 land trusts listed below. Thank you for your leadership, knowledge and deep commitment to the communities you serve.
Land trusts have already conserved 61 million acres of private land across the nation — more than all the national parks combined. But this impressive statistic is only one of the many takeaways from the 2020 National Land Trust Census, which we released in December of 2021.
The Census reveals a wave of change: Land trusts across the nation are harnessing the power of conservation to address the challenges facing their communities, from the harmful effects caused by a changing climate to inequitable access to nature to lack of social connections.
You can read the full National Land Trust Census and learn more about the individual impact of land trusts in their communities and see the collective impact land trusts make together across the country.
View the National Land Trust CensusWith the support of the Alliance, land trusts are putting this belief into action.
Western Reserve Land Conservancy
In Ohio, Western Reserve Land Conservancy expands the boundaries of conservation to help heal a close-knit neighborhood.
Gallatin Valley Land Trust
In Montana, Gallatin Valley Land Trust and Bozeman Health partnered to enhance outdoor access and promote health and wellness.
Because of you, the Alliance provided $2,000,000 in grant funds directly to land trusts in 2021. Grants were awarded for high priority needs, such as staff capacity, climate change solutions, training and internships, community-centered conservation, water quality and remote monitoring.
Alliance remote monitoring grant highlight
Creative partnerships provide solutions to remote work challenges for land trusts
In partnership with The Nature Conservancy in California, $219,000 in grants was awarded to 18 land trusts to identify and implement the best solutions to monitor land with technology tools such as satellite imagery.
“Remote monitoring has helped stewardship teams and landowners gain new perspectives on their work, respond quickly. to threats to conserved land, and work more efficiently to uphold the promise of protecting land in perpetuity
Ultimately, remote monitoring is a powerful tool to help make land trusts more effective and efficient. It offers enormous potential for how we observe the landscape, how we monitor conservation values and even how we connect with landowners.
Scholars for Conservation Leadership Program highlight
In 2019, the Alliance launched the Scholars for Conservation Leadership Program to expand opportunities for students to pursue careers in natural resource management and conservation, with an emphasis on reaching students of color and underrepresented backgrounds in these sectors.
This program is made possible by the support of our incredible donors, land trusts and the United States Forest Service. Thank you for investing in a more welcoming and inclusive conservation future.
I had zero idea what a land trust was before I was a Scholar … coming out of Rally, I learned that land trusts across the U.S. are doing such amazing things in ways I didn't really know were possible. [I’ve discovered] a new tool for conservation.
The lands we love and need are facing the serious effects of our changing climate. Land trusts must be both strong and nimble to respond to these challenges with natural climate solutions in the months and years ahead.
In 2019, the Alliance partnered with Oregon Community Foundation, Seattle Foundation, Idaho Community Foundation and the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation to launch an initiative to fund land trusts’ strategic conservation of climate-resilient lands in the Pacific Northwest.
To date, this initiative has provided funding for the conservation of 20,000 acres that include old-growth forests, farms, rivers, wetlands and coastal areas. These climate-resilient lands also provide stormwater retention, groundwater filtration, regional food security and habitat for species like salmon, bald eagles and black-tailed deer.
In 2021, some terrific strides were made toward our expanding our work with the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), and Farm Bill programs, including the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program (ACEP) and Agricultural Land Easement Program (ALE) Program. In partnership with NRCS, we launched an online ACEP-ALE Action Center.
The Alliance is both a conduit to NRCS for our members as well as an advocate for Farm Bill policies that help land trusts and landowners work together to access conservation easement programs.
Advocacy Days
To truly motivate and inspire elected officials, we need them to hear from local land trusts about the benefits of conserving the lands and waters in their own communities and regions.
Advocacy Days provides land trust leaders with training and support to help build relationships with key legislators. The result is land trusts that can advocate effectively for priorities in their regions and across the nation.
Meet Ellen
As conservation director at Texas Land Trust, Ellen Gass was looking for help and guidance in reaching out to her local and state government leadership. She found it in the Alliance’s Advocacy Program.
Ellen feels good about what she’s learned, saying: “For every new thing I try — whether it’s a conversation with a staffer, attending Advocacy Days or writing an op-ed piece — Alliance staff have been there to walk me through the process.”
Now Ellen is an Advocacy Ambassador for the Alliance. She encourages her peers to do the same. “Just do it! It’s intimidating at first to reach out, but that’s what our government leaders are here for,” she said.
Read more about Ellen's experienceAnd thanks to caring supporters like you, 250 land trust advocates in 43 states (including more than 150 first-timers) got the advocacy support and guidance they needed to have a seat at the table at more than 170 virtual congressional meetings during our 2021 Advocacy Days.
Now that’s something to celebrate.
Land trusts uphold the promise of perpetuity to protect important conservation values. Thanks to passionate supporters like you, they have the backing of the Alliance and Terrafirma, liability insurance that offers land trusts one-of-a-kind coverage to offset the legal costs of conservation defense.
Terrafirma provides conservation defense insurance so land trusts can make sure the places they protect remain that way. Without Terrafirma, land trusts would face expensive and unpredictable legal costs, putting their preserves and conserved lands at risk.
Terrafirma’s 545 land trust members together insure more than 10 million acres, helping to make sure these lands are more resilient to potential legal challenges. In 2021 a historic court ruling upheld a conservation easement with Sonoma Land Trust following seven years of litigation backed by Terrafirma.
Read full storyThe Land Trust Accreditation Commission was incorporated in April 2006 as an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance to operate an innovative program to build and recognize strong land trusts, foster public confidence in land conservation and help ensure the long-term protection of land.
Meeting the standards and practices established by the Commission ensures our landowners, donors, board, volunteers, and the public that they can depend on our efficiency, integrity, and effectiveness.
Accredited land trusts now total 453 in 2021
Our Conservation Priorities
The Alliance’s field staff work with their colleagues to provide local support and training that helps develop networks, empower change and grow conservation impact in every corner of the country.
Well-loved, safe and accessible
The Alliance secured funding to help seven Michigan land trusts address some of the more persistent effects of the pandemic.
It takes a community to save a farm
Inspired by a field trip at Rally, Colorado ranching communities step into action.
Free bus takes people to nature
It’s not the “Magic Bus” memorialized by British rock band the Who — it’s a Nature Bus.
Landowner-driven restoration in Idaho
With funding from the Alliance and Natural Resources Conservation Service, Brian and Pam Robertson were able to spend the last five years of their retirement undertaking a large-scale stream restoration project on their property.
Empowering the next generation
At Grovers Creek Preserve, Great Peninsula Conservancy in Washington developed a curriculum — funded in part with an Advancing Conservation Excellence grant from the Land Trust Alliance — that teaches students how to improve the biodiversity of the forest for a more climate resilient future.
Supporting land trust work to combat climate change: The Alliance’s Climate Communications guidance
Climate change intertwined with the alarming loss of biodiversity represents some of the gravest challenges we face as a society.
I support the Alliance because of its ability to respond to the needs of land trusts working to conserve the places people love.
