How can land trusts attract new audiences and develop a broader, deeper base of support to best weather these uncertain times? The Colorado Conservation Trust (CCT) recently completed a pilot project with the Palmer Land Trust and the Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust (RiGHT) that explored this challenge.

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%.

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.

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.