Over 80 percent of the U.S. population lives under skies so polluted by man-made lights that celestial objects like the Milky Way are almost invisible.

You're never too old to learn new things, a spirit that Virginia's accredited New River Land Trust takes to heart by leading field trips for people ages 50 and over.

High school students in Trees Atlanta's summer job program learned landscaping and leadership skills while beautifying Atlanta by watering trees and pulling invasive weeds.

In Colorado's high-altitude San Luis Valley, which contains the headwaters of the Rio Grande, communities and conservationists have always needed to work together to solve water challenges while balancing the needs of people, agriculture and wildlife.

In 1978, during low tide in the Columbia River Estuary, amateur paleontologists exploring the tidal flats in Pacific County, Washington, found the skull and teeth of a primitive whale dating back 25 million years to the Oligocene, a geological epoch.

Habitat restoration is a goal of many land trusts, including Three Valley Conservation Trust in Oxford, Ohio.

"People take pride in participating in the work of a land trust that has high standards. It adds to morale."

To better connect people in the community with nature, this conservancy is putting landscapes to work.

The Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust finds that accreditation makes their organization — and the land trust movement — stronger.

Accreditation helped Tall Timbers Land Conservancy when it mattered most.

Open Space Institute saw the value in a national standard that helps land trusts of all sizes uphold the highest standards and practices.

Public-private partnerships are critical to the work of Northern Virginia Conservation Trust. The organization preserves Northern Virginia’s natural areas in part by helping Arlington County, Fairfax County and the city of Alexandria carry out the commitments to open space protection outlined in their comprehensive plans.

Accreditation helped Greenbelt Land Trust in a time of rapid organizational change.

In her work at Upstate Forever to protect special places in the Upstate region of South Carolina, Erin Jordan Knight has encountered landowners who understandably question how they can be sure that future enforcers of their easements will be fair.

On a business trip to Los Angeles in 1972, Tommy Wyche was shocked to see development covering the mountains surrounding the city. He returned from the trip and told his son, Brad, “We’ve got to make sure that doesn’t happen to the South Carolina mountains.”