Every land trust’s success makes our whole movement stronger. So lets celebrate! See how land trusts across America are overcoming obstacles and inventing new ways to save special places. Their stories may inspire your own.
Right next door to the second largest city in the U.S. lies the 1,400-acre Palos Verdes Nature Preserve, where Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy is connecting at-risk youth in nearby Los Angeles to nature.
The forward-thinking Cibolo Nature Center (CNC) in Boerne, Texas, is looking to the past in fostering a diverse community focused on sustainability. For over a quarter of a century, CNC has been central to the conservation movement in the Hill Country outside San Antonio.
Although African-Americans had amassed 15 million acres of land in the South between 1865 and 1919, today 97% of those land assets have been lost. In 1920, African-American farmers controlled approximately 14% of the nation’s farmland, whereas today they control less than 1%.
Nature makes people feel better! Time outdoors leads to better fitness, less stress, improved attention, heightened creativity, and even a sense of spiritual connection.
Bayou Land Conservancy embodies the description “the little land trust that could.” This small organization with just 3.65 full-time employee equivalent staff members is located in Houston, the fourth most populous city in the nation. But within this highly developed region, the Conservancy is making a significant impact in preserving land and fostering the next generation of conservation leaders.
Conservation supports jobs in major industries, like agriculture, forestry, tourism and recreation. Strategic conservation also improves our communities and keeps us from wasting tax dollars.
Americans are rarely presented with an opportunity to learn about the earliest Asian immigrants to the United States. In 2007, the staff at the American River Conservancy (ARC) in Coloma, California, was given that chance when three members of the Veerkamp family approached the group with a proposition.
