The Nature Conservancy. Protecting nature. Preserving life.™

Our Protected Properties

Our mission to protect Kentucky’s lands and waters for people and nature has guided our work for more than three decades. Our successes are maximized through our partnerships with like-minded federal, state and local organizations who also work to protect the Commonwealth’s natural areas for everyone.

We annually review our landholding portfolios to ensure that properties we own are being protected to the best of our ability. Often, we discover that a piece of land can be protected under ownership by one of our partners. Once this determination has been made, we negotiate with the partner to ensure that future protection of the land is honored. In these cases, we usually continue to serve in as consultant and even sometimes as land manager. Such transactions refill our coffers with financial resources needed to pursue new conservation projects.This approach has resulted in a collection of 40 unique nature preserves owned and managed by The Nature Conservancy and the overall protection of over 45,000 acres in our state.