The Wildlands Conservancy is hoping to break its own record. About two years ago, the group put together California's largest privately owned nature sanctuary, the 87,000-acre Wind Wolves Preserve 80 miles north of Los Angeles. But little deals are often as crucial as big deals, Nudel said. Tom Hutchinson of Godfrey, Ill., a little town across the Mississippi River from St. Louis, last June gave 42 acres to local conservancies, who turned them over to the birds. Hutchinson's donation was linked to an existing nature preserve to create a 388-acre sanctuary in one of the Midwest's prime roosting areas for bald eagles.
Some trusts create habitat for people rather than animals.
The group doesn't try to create gardens, she said. It waits for gardeners to get organized and ask for help. The gardeners must sign agreements to keep the lots under cultivation and cleaned up in the winter months. Many gardeners donate their crops to the poor, Power said, and communal gardening creates a sense of neighborhood where it's often in short supply. In the end, though, people will be big winners, too, he said.