Land trusts are committed to helping tackle climate change. The Land Trust Alliance helps them identify, conserve and manage climate-resilient lands, which are most likely to persist and thrive in a changing climate. We enable land trusts to access funding to protect forests and grasslands that pull carbon from the air and to conserve lands that provide people with buffers from natural disasters. And we help land trusts to work with their communities to meet renewable energy development needs — without compromising critical open spaces.
Unleashing the power of land trusts
The Alliance provides financial and technical support to land trusts to identify, conserve and manage lands that are critical in our fight against climate change:
Pacific Northwest Resilient Landscapes Initiative
The Pacific Northwest Resilient Landscapes Initiative provided grant funding and technical support to permanently conserve the most climate-resilient lands in the Pacific Northwest. The initiative supported projects that strengthen access to clean water, reduce the risks of flooding and bolster local economic opportunity.
Featured projects
Nature needs your help.
The challenges facing our planet can seem too big for any one person: wildfires and extreme weather events, polluted air and water, rising seas, fractured communities and habitat loss for plants and animals. Supporting land trusts is one way you are making a difference for the land and people.
Shielding communities from disaster
Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of natural disasters such as floods, droughts, wildfires and extreme heat. By protecting and managing land with climate impacts in mind, land trusts can help buffer communities from disasters. For example, healthy wetlands help reduce coastal flooding from storms and controlled burns can reduce a buildup of fuel for wildfires, lessening their intensity. Land trusts also have a unique role to play in helping their neighbors prepare for, respond to and recover from natural disasters by applying their expertise such as helping to clear downed trees following a storm or building water filtration systems in communities whose infrastructure has been damaged.
The Land Trust Alliance provides training and resources to help land trusts lessen the impacts of natural disasters in their communities.
Protecting forests and grasslands
The Land Trust Alliance provides financial and technical assistance to help land trusts access carbon offset markets that provide funding for the conservation and management of forests and grasslands. These lands pull and store carbon from the atmosphere while also keeping our air and water clean and our soil healthy and productive: A win-win for nature and people.
Siting renewable energy
The federal government and many state governments are taking immediate and decisive action to transition to a renewable energy system. Though a critical strategy for addressing climate change, renewable energy development will have a significant impact on the landscape. The Land Trust Alliance provides resources and training to help land trusts encourage renewable energy by working with authorities to site wind turbines and solar arrays away from sensitive natural lands.
