Connecting people to nature has never been more important.
Big or small, California land trusts increasingly are meeting the needs of their communities through partnerships, engagement and outreach.
That’s about 4,336,363 football fields!
Land trusts have already conserved 61 million acres of private land across the nation — more than all of the national parks combined. Help us conserve another 60 million acres by the end of the decade.
Together, let’s keep Gaining Ground.
California land trusts are community-led and supported and protect lands and waters that help the entire state.
1,290,045
12,061
1,097
278
1,134
122 years old (1900)
6 years old (2016)
30 years old
Acre by acre, land trusts are helping to conserve California lands, waters and ways of life.
Disclaimer: Land trusts conserve land in many different ways and every project is unique. Category totals may change depending on how acres are reported by survey respondents to reflect the most current data and minimize double-counting. In some instances, the total may be greater than the sum of the separate categories due to organizations that provided total acres not broken down by category.
This information reflects data collected in the National Land Trust Census, the longest-running comprehensive survey of private land conservation in America. Learn more about the Census and see which land trusts participated in the 2020 National Land Trust Census.
Land trusts across the state are helping find solutions to some of California's most pressing issues.
Tackling climate change: The accredited Marin Agricultural Land Trust helped launch the Marin Carbon Project to see whether improved agricultural management practices, such as managed grazing and spreading compost on rangeland, could help soil take up more atmospheric CO2.
Read moreEngaging with community partners: At the heart of one of California’s most scenic stretches of coastline in Big Sur, the Esselen Tribe of Monterey County has regained its first ancestral homelands since it was displaced by the Spanish four centuries ago. In 2020 the Esselen Tribe and the accredited Western Rivers Conservancy finalized a project placing the Adler Ranch south of Monterey into Esselen ownership.
Read moreAddressing community needs: The American River Conservancy in Coloma, California, worked with a family to protect the natural and cultural heritage of the site by selling it to an organization that would be able to provide permanent guardianship of the land.
Read moreLand Trust Alliance member land trusts, listed below, commit to adopting Land Trust Standards and Practices as their guiding principles.