Equitable land access

In urban Pittsburg, California, located outside San Francisco in the East Bay, youth who have been through foster care are learning work and life skills through a new farm program of the accredited John Muir Land Trust.

Indigenous Hawaiian communities traditionally made hale shelters (pronounced “ha-lay”) out of local materials, but over time the practice was replaced by Western-style houses and nearly lost.

Community-centered conservation offers an opportunity to reach more people than ever before, by doing land conservation in new, different and more inclusive ways to connect with those in the diverse places that we live.

Land trusts across the country are setting new and bigger goals as part of a global movement to increase the pace of conservation and address challenges such as climate change, loss of habitat and agricultural lands, and to ensure equitable access to the land.

Native Americans once used the tree as a ceremonial meeting place. The land surrounding the tree has also been a plantation, a freedman’s village and a place where Johns Islanders, including Civil Rights activist Septima P. Clark, could rest under the shade.

Annual gatherings in northeast Oregon are working to bring people together, heal historical trauma and reconnect Indigenous people with their ancestral homelands.

Partnerships between the accredited Kestrel Land Trust and two nonprofit groups that work with refugee and immigrant farmers — All Farmers and the Pioneer Valley Workers Center — are helping to build a more just food system in Massachusetts.

“Families felt safe because of the accommodations we made. They enjoyed being together with other families, and they were grateful to have a fun program that met the needs of both their neurodiverse and neurotypical kids.” — Anne Smith-White, Trustees of Reservations

Conservationists of Color puts the voices of those often relegated to the margins at the forefront while offering safe spaces.

Some incredible environmental and cultural preservation projects are being carried out by land trusts throughout the Chesapeake Bay watershed.