Opportunities to protect thousands of acres as wilderness are rare in Vermont. Rarer still is the chance to preserve northern hardwood forest, a critical wildlife corridor and the headwater streams of two rivers: the Winooski and the Lamoille.

For each American farmer younger than 25, five are older than 75. As farmers consider retirement, many find themselves forced to sell their land to development rather than to a future generation of farmers. This means more land removed from production agriculture.

"For far too long, we’ve known of the harm we are doing to this planet, the realities of systemically excluded communities and the continuation of the all-too-narrow definition of what it means to be outdoorsy,” says Teresa Baker in an online video for the Outdoorist Oath, a new nonprofit that be

In September, land trusts, historical societies and multiple conservation organizations and agencies joined together on the banks of the Patuxent River to announce the formation of the Southern Maryland Conservation Alliance.

Over 4,700 acres of coastal habitat in Texas along Halls Bayou and West Galveston Bay were recently acquired by Galveston Bay Foundation (GBF) and will be permanently protected with a conservation easement held by the Katy Prairie Conservancy (both accredited).

A prominent forested property on the Shawangunk Ridge in New York’s Catskill Mountains is now permanently protected thanks to a recent purchase by the Open Space Institute.

Bats are invaluable to North American ecosystems for their role in eating insects and saving plants and trees from damage and disease. But white-nose syndrome, the fast-moving fungal disease, has decimated North American bats in recent years.

The second largest city in the nation is now certified wildlife habit.

Part scavenger hunt and part nature hike, the RIWalks Challenge encourages people to explore Rhode Island land trust trails. Hikers search for 30 nature-inspired “creatures” hidden along the trails, from a Sweetgum seed pod to a Chanterelle mushroom.

In the United States, wealthier and whiter neighborhoods are more likely to enjoy the benefits of greenery and shade.

After Hurricane Matthew in 2016, a flood shuttered Princeville Elementary School in eastern North Carolina. In 2020, after four years of renovations, the school reopened only to close again in a few months due to COVID-19.

“Underwater and overwhelmed — our new normal?” asks the first installment of Rising to the Challenge, a six-part climate series released by the Potomac Conservancy. The summer series explores how the climate crisis impacts the Potomac River and its communities.

It’s not the “Magic Bus” memorialized by British rock band the Who — it’s a Nature Bus, launched by the accredited Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy this year to take city residents of Albany, New York, to some of the region’s most scenic outdoor destinations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many Americans sought refuge in the outdoors, some for the
first time ever.

Conserved farms, forests and trails are not just amenities. They are also resources that safeguard the economic health of communities.

BLISS Meadows is a 10-acre land reclamation project that brings educational farming and equitable access to green space in northeast Baltimore.

In July, The Trust for Public Land and the Bureau of Land Management announced the expansion of the remote Sabinoso Wilderness Area in northeast New Mexico, which represents the largest land donation to a federal wilderness area in U.S. history.

New York’s extensive Empire State Trail is now complete, thanks in part to the role played by several land trusts.

The accredited North Florida Land Trust recently paid tribute to MaVynee Betsch, an environmental advocate known as “The Beach Lady” for her efforts to protect Amelia Island’s American Beach.

Across the West, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service works with Native Americans to restore sagebrush range through the Sage Grouse Initiative, part of the Working Lands for Wildlife program.

People love gnomes. Or so Mohawk Hudson Land Conservancy discovered last summer when the accredited New York land trust hosted a Summer Hike-a-thon Scavenger Hunt.

The closure of farmers markets around Madison, Wisconsin, last spring left some Hmong growers at a disadvantage. As markets moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, growers were left behind if they weren’t proficient in technology or didn’t speak English as a primary language.

Sometimes the benefits of land protection are less visible to the eye, like a microscopic improvement in stream quality or the invisible yet indispensable sequestration of green-houses gases. Other times, the signs of nature’s resilience are right out in the open.

In central Idaho, the Pioneer Mountain Region straddles sagebrush grasslands and high mountains. This wild and beautiful landscape hosts abundant wildlife, including sage grouse, pronghorn and antelope.

At the heart of one of California’s most scenic stretches of coastline in Big Sur, the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County has regained its first ancestral homelands since it was displaced by the Spanish four centuries ago.

The pandemic dramatically changed how we interact with the world. When many arts organizations cancelled their 2020 seasons, Philadelphia contemporary ballet company BalletX found a creative way to make the world its stage.

When a massive derecho storm hit central Iowa without warning last August, the destruction was widespread. The intense windstorm brought up to 130-mile-per-hour gusts, equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane or 40-mile-wide tornado.

Historically, accounts of the Chesapeake Bay watershed have too regularly excluded Black voices and narratives. This 400-year omission affects how and where conservation takes place.

In many ways, the pandemic laid bare the critical connection between conservation and community access to local food.

Land access and food security have always been important issues for Kingston Land Trust, but they have emerged as even greater priorities during the pandemic.

The accredited Land Trust of North Alabama partnered with Downtown Huntsville, Inc. and Downtown Charitable Fund to provide temporary employment to service industry workers from downtown Huntsville businesses who had been displaced due to the economic fallout of COVID-19.

As various iconic public lands all over the country closed due to COVID-19, many land trusts experienced increased traffic at their properties — as well as a renewed appreciation for conservation.

In rapidly developing Eagle County, Colorado, the Land & Rivers Fund helps to protect rivers and open spaces. In partnership with Eagle River Watershed Council, the accredited Eagle Valley Land Trust launched the program, which is supported by local businesses and their customers, who make voluntary donations with purchases.

A first-of-its-kind study has found that land conservation modestly boosts employment, a leading indicator of economic growth.

Why did the salamander cross the road?

Land trusts around the country have joined the fight to protect native pollinators, which are essential to the planet and to human life, allowing for the reproduction of over 85% of the world's flowering plants and two-thirds of the world's crop species.

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.”