The Montana Land Reliance (MLR) is a nonprofit land trust established to acquire and manage conservation easements in the State of Montana. [1] Headquartered in Helena, Montana, the organization holds 897 easements on 1,137,062 acres of private property across the state. It is the largest land trust in the State of Montana, the largest state-based land trust in the United States, and is accredited by the Land Trust Alliance.
The Montana Land Reliance was founded in 1978. Its mission is to partner "with private landowners to permanently protect agricultural lands, fish and wildlife habitat, and open space." In 1981, when the organization penned its original mission, the Board and organization's leaders determined that “The immediate accomplishments of MLR's conservation work are measured in miles of streambanks and acres of land and habitat protected. The lasting benefits of MLR's work are the perpetuation of a lifestyle and an economy that rely on responsibly managed private land and increasingly valuable Montana open spaces that will continue to nourish the spirit of future generations." Although MLR has traditionally worked with agricultural producers to protect the environmental and economic integrity of Montana in the face of increased development, it has more recently found conservation allies in recreational landowners. Each of the organization's easements contributes to the preservation of wildlife habitat and ecosystems, open space, and the economic and recreational land uses unique to the State of Montana.
A conservation easement is a voluntary legal agreement between a landowner and a land trust that limits the uses of the land in order to protect its conservation values. The landowner – the conservation easement donor – retains title to the property. Regardless of changes in ownership, however, the conservation easement runs with the title, thereby protecting the land in perpetuity, for example from inappropriate development.
Total acreage under easement: 1,137,062 acres (460,153 ha)
Total acreage by resource
Miles of stream frontage protected: 1,829
Ecosystem services are the products of nature that benefit people, and include services such as water and air filtration. Each ecosystem service is quantifiable, which enables one to determine a return on investment in conservation in the value of what an acre of conserved land gives back to people on an annual basis. The Montana Land Reliance has found that its protected acres return over $300,000,000 annually in ecosystem services. [2]
Ruby Habitat Foundation is a 509(a)(3) support organization for The Montana Land Reliance, founded in 2002. [3] The Foundation manages a 1,100-acre ranch in Sheridan, Montana, through which runs 4 miles of the Ruby River, a man made spring creek, and Clear Creek, a braid of the Ruby River. In addition to managing a fishing and hunting program for visitors from around the country, it is an experimental property on which the Foundation conducts experiments to establish agricultural and recreational best practices.
In the United States, a conservation easement is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental entity to constrain, as to a specified land area, the exercise of rights otherwise held by a landowner so as to achieve certain conservation purposes. It is an interest in real property established by agreement between a landowner and land trust or unit of government. The conservation easement "runs with the land", meaning it is applicable to both present and future owners of the land. The grant of conservation easement, as with any real property interest, is part of the chain of title for the property and is normally recorded in local land records.
Land trusts are nonprofit organizations which own and manage land, and sometimes waters. There are three common types of land trust, distinguished from one another by the ways in which they are legally structured and by the purposes for which they are organized and operated:
The Forest Legacy Program was established in the 1990 United States farm bill to protect environmentally important forest lands that are threatened by conversion to nonforest uses. It provides federal funding for conservation easements and fee simple purchases.
Lamesteer National Wildlife Refuge is an 800-acre (320 ha) National Wildlife Refuge in eastern Montana, U.S. All of the acreage is an easement refuge and is on privately owned land but the landowners and U.S. Government work cooperatively to protect the resources. The refuge was set aside to preserve habitat for migratory birds that frequent Lamesteer Reservoir, and the refuge and reservoir are named after Lame Steer Creek. The refuge is unstaffed and is managed from Medicine Lake National Wildlife Refuge.
Natural Lands is a non-profit land conservation organization with headquarters in Media, Pennsylvania, dedicated to the management, protection, and conservation of eastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey's native forests, fields, streams, and wetlands. The organization owns and manages 43 nature preserves—and one public garden totaling more than 23,000 acres—located in 13 counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Nineteen of the preserves are open to the public for recreational use; the others have limited visitation due to the presence of sensitive ecosystems or limited facilities.
Conservation development, also known as conservation design, is a controlled-growth land use development that adopts the principle for allowing limited sustainable development while protecting the area's natural environmental features in perpetuity, including preserving open space landscape and vista, protecting farmland or natural habitats for wildlife, and maintaining the character of rural communities. A conservation development is usually defined as a project that dedicates a minimum of 50 percent of the total development parcel as open space. The management and ownership of the land are often formed by the partnership between private land owners, land-use conservation organizations and local government. It is a growing trend in many parts of the country, particularly in the Western United States. In the Eastern United States, conservation design has been promoted by some state and local governments as a technique to help preserve water quality.
The Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests (SPNHF) is a private, non-profit, land conservation and sustainable forestry organization based in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. It purchases or is given easements on property, or obtains outright ownership, as a way to conserve land for wildlife, recreation, sustainable forestry and sustainable agriculture. It also performs advocacy and education services. It was established in February 1901, with Frank W. Rollins as its first president. Philip W. Ayres was appointed the first Forester. During the 1920s, the SPNHF raised over $100,000 towards the purchase of land in Franconia Notch.
The American Land Conservancy was an American non-profit organization whose goal was to protect the natural environment.
Farmland preservation is a joint effort by non-governmental organizations and local governments to set aside and protect examples of a region's farmland for the use, education, and enjoyment of future generations. They are operated mostly at state and local levels by government agencies or private entities such as land trusts and are designed to limit conversion of agricultural land to other uses that otherwise might have been more financially attractive to the land owner. Every state provides tax relief through differential (preferential) assessment. Less common approaches include establishing agricultural districts, using zoning to protect agricultural land, purchasing development rights, and transferable development rights. It is often a part of regional planning and national historic preservation.
Mitigation banking is the preservation, enhancement, restoration or creation (PERC) of a wetland, stream, or habitat conservation area which offsets, or compensates for, expected adverse impacts to similar nearby ecosystems. The goal is to replace the exact function and value of specific habitats that would be adversely affected by a proposed activity or project. The public interest is served when enforcement agencies require more habitat as mitigation, often referred to as a mitigation ratio, than is adversely impacted by management or development of nearby acreage.
Private landowner assistance program (PLAP) is a class of government assistance program available throughout the U.S. for landowners interested in maintaining, developing, improving and protecting wildlife on their property. Each state provides various programs that assist landowners in agriculture, forestry and conserving wildlife habitat. This helps landowners in the practice of good land stewardship and provides multiple benefits to the environment. Some states offer technical assistance which includes:
Utah Open Lands Conservation Association is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit land trust conservation association in the United States.
Conserving Carolina is a non-profit conservation organization working to preserve water and land resources in Western North Carolina. Conserving Carolina was created in July 2017, from a merger of two previously separate organizations, Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy and Pacolet Area Conservancy. The combined organization maintains a primary office in Hendersonville, NC and a regional office in Columbus, NC.
California Rangeland Trust is a conservation nonprofit organization founded in 1998. The Rangeland Trust is the largest land trust in California, having conserved over 371,000 acres (1,500 km2) of rangeland on 90 ranches across 26 counties.
Joshua's Tract Conservation and Historic Trust, or Joshua's Trust, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) land trust operating in northeast Connecticut. Joshua's Trust was incorporated in 1966 to help conserve property of significant natural or historic interest. As of 2011, the Trust protects more than 5,000 acres, maintains 42 miles of trails that are open to the public, holds educational outreach programs, and publishes the Joshua's Tract Walkbook.
Whiterock Conservancy is a 501(c)(3) land trust located in west-central Iowa that stewards over 4,000 acres of contiguous land located in the Middle Raccoon River watershed, and an additional 1,000 non-contiguous land located in the Brushy and Middle Raccoon River watersheds. The Whiterock landscape almost exclusively made possible by an extraordinary planned land gift from the Garst family to Whiterock Conservancy. The landscape is a mosaic of agricultural land, wetlands, preserved prairie and oak savanna, riverine woodlands, and upland forest. The land is also home to the historic Roswell and Elizabeth Garst Farmstead, which hosted Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev in 1959, and is now on the National Register of Historic Places. The land is used for recreation, environmental conservation, and for the production of agricultural products, and is managed as a working landscape where cultural, environmental, agricultural, and recreational land uses are held in equal importance.
Operating as a nonprofit environmental land trust, The Vital Ground Foundation protects and restores North America's grizzly bear populations by conserving wildlife habitat. Founded in 1990, Vital Ground operates in the belief that the grizzly bear, an umbrella species, is nature's barometer of a healthy and complete ecosystem, and that conserving grizzly bears and their habitat is key to ensuring diverse and healthy landscapes.
The North Branch Land Trust is a conservation easement group that aims to buy the developing rights to land in the Back Mountain area of the Northeastern part of Pennsylvania. The North Branch Land Trust was established in 1993 and has grown from one conserved property a year to over 12,000 acres of conserved land. The watersheds affected by the NBLT are the Susquehanna River and Delaware River watersheds.
The Land Trust for Tennessee is an non-profit conservation organization working to protect Tennessee's natural, scenic, and historic landscapes and sites. Since 1999, The Land Trust has conserved more than 135,000 acres (550 km2) of land across 65-plus Tennessee counties.
The Big Sur Land Trust is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Monterey, California, that has played an instrumental role in preserving land in California's Big Sur and Central Coast regions. The trust was the first to conceive of and use the "conservation buyer" method in 1989 by partnering with government and developers to offer tax benefits as an inducement to sell land at below-market rates. Since 1978, with the support of donors, funders and partners, it has conserved over 40,000 acres through conservation easements, acquisition and transfer of land to state, county and city agencies. It has placed conservation easements on 7,000 acres and has retained ownership of over 4,000 acres.
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