Connecting people to nature has never been more important.
Big or small, land trusts increasingly are meeting the needs of their communities through partnerships, engagement and outreach.
That’s about 46,267,118 football fields!
Land trusts have already conserved 61 million acres of private land across the nation — more than all of the national parks combined. Help us conserve another 60 million acres by the end of the decade.
Together, let’s keep Gaining Ground.
Land trusts are community-led and supported and protect lands and waters that benefit everyone.
6.3 million
233,574
10,047
2,669
13,672
180 years old (1843)
3 years old (2020)
32 years old
Land trusts have protected 61 million acres — more than all national parks. Local and state land trusts contributed to 70% of the growth in land protected since 2015.
Disclaimer: Land trusts conserve land in many different ways and every project is unique. Category totals may change depending on how acres are reported by survey respondents to reflect the most current data and minimize double-counting. In some instances, the total may be greater than the sum of the separate categories due to organizations that provided total acres not broken down by category.
This information reflects data collected in the National Land Trust Census, the longest-running comprehensive survey of private land conservation in America. Learn more about the Census and see which land trusts participated in the 2020 National Land Trust Census.
Land Trust Alliance member land trusts, listed below, commit to adopting Land Trust Standards and Practices as their guiding principles.