Conservation land is essential to our health and well-being. Land trusts are organizations that help to permanently protect land for the benefit of the public.

There are more than 1,600 land trusts in the United States. These community-based institutions have protected more than 37 million acres of land.

Land trusts may protect land through donation and purchase, by working with landowners who wish to donate or sell conservation easements (permanent deed restrictions that prevent harmful land uses), or by acquiring land outright to maintain working farms, forests, wilderness, or for other conservation reasons.

For more information on land trusts and their work, please visit the Land Trust Alliance.