Introduction to Land Trusts & Their Work

This guide is designed to provide land trusts with insight into understanding Trout Unlimited chapters and programs, and how TU supports land conservation and land trusts in conserving coldwater streams and watersheds. By partnering with land trusts, TU can better help protect and restore critical coldwater fisheries habitat.

This guide covers everything a TU grassroots volunteer needs to know about working with land trusts. Starting with the whats and hows of land trust operations, the handbook also covers the details of conservation easements and TU’s role in their creation, public angling access, funding and technical support, and communicating with landowners.

An article from the Forest Stewards Guild's magazine that gives an overview of conservation easements on working forests.

Simply stated, a land trust is a charitable organization that acquires land or conservation easements, or that stewards land or easements, for conservation purposes. However, this simple definition leaves much to be explained. (WeConservePA guide; 3 pages)

In brief, WeConservePA uses the word conservation to mean the act of caring for and wisely using land to ensure that the land’s natural resources can continue to benefit people and wildlife over time, and, where the land is degraded, restoring its capacity to deliver these benefits. (print version of WeConservePA guide, 1 p.)