As the national umbrella organization of land trusts, the Land Trust Alliance works for public policies that support land trusts' efforts and promote their land conservation goals. The LTA Board of Directors has adopted the following principles and beliefs to serve as the foundation of the Alliance's public policy initiatives.
Open space enhances our quality of life.
People of all beliefs and means value open spaces for recreation, education, and aesthetic and spiritual enrichment. Open space protects our health and welfare. Green space is essential for recharging our aquifers, preventing pollution of surface and ground waters, filtering sediments, limiting air pollution, and maintaining wildlife habitat and other natural systems whose benefits to health and medicine are just beginning to be understood. Open space preserves our heritage. When we maintain open land, we sustain the magnificent forests, prairies, mountains, deserts, rivers, lakes, beaches, farmland and community commons that have uniquely shaped the character of our country and its people.