2005 National Land Trust Census Report
Executive Summary

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Each year America loses two million acres1 of farms, forests and open spaces. Pristine landscapes are converted to shopping malls, subdivisions and highways. In the process, more than 100,000 acres2 of wetlands are destroyed, degrading water quality and contributing to flooding. Americans love their land and yearn to take charge of growth in their hometowns while at the same time respecting the rights of landowners. In this context, voluntary conservation by private land trusts is succeeding on a scale never before seen.

The conservation of land in small communities across America is a local story that rarely garners national attention. Yet the combined impact of 1,667 private land trusts operating in every state of the nation is growing significantly, bringing the benefits of clean water, wildlife, parks, urban gardens, family farms, woods and rivers to millions of Americans. From ranchers of wide open spaces in the West, to urban gardeners in dense cities, to kids exploring wetlands, to armchair travelers who enjoy scenic vistas, Americans all have something in common: their love for the outdoors is being protected for future generations.

This is being done through a special type of private, nonprofit organization called a land trust, whose mission is typically to preserve a certain type of land that is important to the character and soul of each community. Little known just two decades ago, land trusts are now one of the fastest-growing and most successful conservation movements in American history. This new report traces the progress of this largely volunteer movement, with data collected through year-end 2005.

For several decades, the Land Trust Alliance has been tracking national trends in private land conservation, with each five-year report showing dramatically more land protected than ever before. All records were broken with the release of the Alliance’s 2005 National Land Trust Census. Some of the most important findings of the report include:

• Total acres conserved by local, state and national land trusts increased 54% to 37 million acres in just the past five years. This is an area 16 ½ times the size of Yellowstone National Park.3

• The pace of conservation by local and state land trusts more than tripled between successive five-year periods.

• The number of land trusts grew to 1,667, a 32% increase over five years.

• The West is the fastest-growing area, for both acres conserved and new land trusts.

• Professionalism of land trusts is increasing, with most land trusts agreeing to more stringent rules of conduct, and securing larger annual budgets and stewardship endowments.

The National Land Trust Census is the nation’s only tabulation of land preserved through private, voluntary land conservation in the United States.

Key Findings of 2005 National Land Trust Census

• Total acreage conserved through private means is 37 million acres, a 54% increase from 24 million acres in 2000. This includes both land protected by local and state land trusts, and the largest national land conservation groups, including The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, The Conservation Fund, and The Trust for Public Land.

• The pace of private land conservation has tripled by local and state land trusts. From 1995-2000, land trusts conserved an average of 337,937 acres per year. That pace soared to 1,166,697 million acres conserved per year, on average, from 2000-2005.

• America’s land trusts have markedly enhanced their professionalism and increased their ranks to 1,667 in 2005 from 1,263 in 2000. See graph.

• Acres conserved by local and state land trusts doubled.  11.9 million acres were conserved by these groups through 2005—an area twice the size of the state of New Hampshire. This is an increase of 5.8 million acres since 2000. See graph.

• The states with the highest total acres conserved are California, Maine, Colorado, Montana, Virginia, New York, Vermont, New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. Notably, Colorado and Virginia are two of the few states offering a state tax incentive for conservation, operating in tandem with the federal incentive—a likely factor in the rankings.

• Local and state land trusts increased the acres protected by conservation easements by 148%. These private, voluntary agreements saved 6,245,969 acres as of 2005, versus 2,514,566 just five years ago. Easements allow landowners to take advantage of IRS approved tax incentives. The use of such easements has been on the rise for more than a decade. Easements are sometimes the only way family farmers can afford to conserve their working farm, ranch or timber lands.

• The land type reported as being the primary focus of land trust efforts is protecting natural areas and wildlife habitat (39%), followed by open space (38%) and water resources (26%), especially wetlands. Yet the type of land protected nationwide is quite varied, reflecting the regional differences in landforms. Other protected areas are farms, coastal shores, prairies, deserts, urban gardens and local parks. Another emerging pattern is land conservation in connection with building affordable housing.

• The American West is the fastest-growing region in both the number of acres saved and the number of land trusts. Protection of rangeland is increasing in many Western states.4 The second-fastest growing region, by percentage of acres conserved, is the Southeast, an area that historically has had fewer land trusts. The Northeast gained the most acreage under conservation easement, nearly tripling the acres held under easement in the past five years.

• The highest number of land trusts is found in California (198), followed by Massachusetts, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maine. The preponderance of land trusts in the Northeast reflects the birth of land trusts there more than 100 years ago.

• Land trusts’ numbers, fiduciary status and organizational management are strong. The number of land trusts grew 32%, to 1,667, during the five-year period. Over $1 billion in endowments have been established for long term stewardship of protected land; and the average annual operating budget increased 63% as of 2005. Nearly 1,000 land trusts have adopted the 2004 Revised Land Trust Standards and Practices, a set of guidelines developed by the land trust community for the professional operation of a land trust.

2005 National Land Trust Census Report This 22 page report details the important role of private land conservation in the U.S. Includes graphs and tables. Report (PDF; 395KB) Data Tables Graphs and Charts Land Trust Success Stories Census Home

posted 11/30/06