Typically, local land trusts arise from community concerns about a given resource. For example, in response to family ranches being subdivided into 40-acre 'ranchettes' across the West, a growing number of ranchers have established, or joined with land trusts to acquire and protect critical ranchlands. Over 1,500 local land trusts operate nationwide. There are also national trusts, such as the National Trust For Historic Preservation and the Trust for Public Land , which help communities form local land trusts. The Land Trust Alliance is a national organization made of land trusts, other conservation and historic preservation organizations, businesses, government agencies, professionals and other individuals working to ensure that land trusts have the information, skills, and resources they need to protect land.
Land trusts serve many functions in a community.
They provide information on private, voluntary action landowners can take to protect their land while meeting their financial needs. Land trusts often perform natural and cultural resource inventories of individual properties. In addition, they may accept donations of land or conservation easements, typically holding the land 'in perpetuity'. Larger land trusts may broker purchases on behalf of differing interests, such as buying and then selling private land to a city or county for a local park, pooling funds from public and private entities for land purchases, or ensuring that private property is purchased by a conservation-oriented buyer. A local land trust provides an effective partner when protecting significant community resources.