National Trends in Private Land Conservation

This section offers some views of the progress of conservation at the national scale, from organizations like the Land Trust Alliance and Defenders of Wildlife as well as federal agencies like NRCS.

National Survey of Local Land Trusts: Defenders of Wildlife conducted a national survey of local land trusts in 2006 to understand how land trusts are contributing to biodiversity conservation and to help identify barriers to achieving effective on-the-ground biodiversity conservation. Click here to view the survey summary (pdf document).

Trends Toward More Habitat: NRCS Contributions on Privately Owned Lands. How are we doing in this country on our privately owned lands to provide for the needs of fish and wildlife? This document reviews some highlights on the progress America’s farmers and ranchers are making with the help of the Natural Resources Conservation Service and many others. Click here to read (pdf document).

2005 National Land Trust Census Report: The Land Trust Alliance’s survey of land trusts found that the pace of private land conservation by local and state land trusts more than tripled between successive five-year periods from 2000 to 2005. Read more about the success of private conservation efforts here (pdf document).