Real Estate Term:Conservation land trusts

Conservation trusts often rely on endowments and large donations to acquire sensitive natural areas or notable landmarks, and purchase land to hold it in perpetual protection as open or green space. Far from locking the land away, though, most land trusts work with community groups, such as the Upper Valley Trails Alliance and the Trustees of Reservations to keep these areas natural beauty available to the entire community.

A Land Trust Alliance formed in 1981 provides technical support to the growing network of land trusts. On the eve of the 21st Century, an Alliance census reported 6,225,225 acres (25,193 km²) of land was held by 1,263 conservation land trusts, up from 1.9 million acres (7,700 km²) among 887 trusts 10 years earlier.

Since 1891, when the first US land trust was organized, conservation trusts have been established in each of the 50 states, often as a way of protecting open spaces in the path of urban sprawl. Local and regional trusts in California, New York and Montana held the most area among those of states nationwide. One of the earliest land trusts in Illinois is Lake Forest Open Lands Association, founded in 1967. Its Shaw Prairie pre-dates the Industrial Revolution in the U.S.

In October 2002, Property and Environment Research Center published a report by Dominic P. Parker entitled Cost-Effective Strategies for Conserving Private Land. This paper identified numerous ways for operating land trusts more efficiently, pointing out that conservation easements and other tools for land preservation may be less costly than ownership. Sometimes the various rights associated with land ownership are separable. A preservationist organization may, for instance, buy only the extraction rights on a property with oil or minerals, and then rent those rights to extracters on the organization's terms. The terms might include requirements to protect the environment and pay the organization royalties on materials extracted.

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