Nature Conservancy Magazine: Summer 2007 - U.S. Land Trusts Make Huge Inroads

Land trusts have protected more than 37 million acres of private land in the United States.

“Between all of us, we've managed to triple the pace of conservation, even as the challenges have escalated.”

— Mike Dennis
Director of conservation real estate and private lands,
The Nature Conservancy

U.S. Land Trusts Make Huge Inroads

An Area Larger than New England Now Protected

Across the country, it’s easy to spot the rush and pour of new houses and shopping centers. But what may be less apparent is a countervailing trend: a surge in the protection of land. According to a new report by the Land Trust Alliance, a group that includes The Nature Conservancy and most U.S. land-conservation organizations, the amount of private land protected from development in the United States reached 37 million acres in 2005, up from 24 million acres in 2000.

Today, there are 1,667 land trusts in the United States—nearly a third more than existed in 2000—with goals that range from protecting a single historic site to saving entire ecosystems.

“This expansion of the land trust community could not have happened at a more critical time,” says Mike Dennis, the Conservancy’s director of conservation real estate and private lands and a board member of the Land Trust Alliance. “Between all of us, we’ve managed to triple the pace of conservation, even as the challenges have escalated.”

The record-breaking pace of protection is good news for biodiversity. “We have an ever-accelerating rate of species extinction, combined with unparalleled levels of development,” says Dennis. “Fortunately, we are also developing a vigilant and effective land trust community to try and confront those challenges.”

—Hal Herring

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