What is a Land Trust?
Restoring nature. Strengthening our future.
A land trust is a community-focused nonprofit organization that works to conserve land in perpetuity. This land can be owned outright in fee simple or through other methods, such as conservation easements, to guarantee protection. For Everwild Land Trust, these held lands make up what we call our “Nature Preserves”.
Through this work, land trusts are able to bring a sustainable mindset to communities, where the environmental, economic, and social aspects can flow together as one. Although all land trusts have the general mission of conserving land, each land trust is unique, and this allows Everwild Land Trust to best serve the needs of our local community. Our mission and the resulting work protect and emphasize the things that make our region special, both for now and in the future.
In February 2024, Everwild Land Trust became a nationally accredited land trust through the Land Trust Accreditation Commission (an independent program of the Land Trust Alliance), demonstrating our strong commitment to national standards of excellence in both land conservation and organizational governance.
The Land Trust Alliance is a national organization that supports and strengthens land trusts across the country. It has a network that includes over 900 member land trusts, and through leadership in public policy, education, and the development of best practices, the Alliance has a vital role in helping organizations like Everwild Land Trust protect land effectively and for the long term. For more information on the Land Trust Alliance, please visit here What the Land Trust Alliance does - Land Trust Alliance.
Accreditation is a mark of distinction and only awarded to land trusts who have completed a very rigorous review process and successfully shown fiscal accountability, strong organizational leadership, sound transactions, and lasting stewardship of the lands they conserve. The accreditation seal identifies land trusts who are accredited and meet national standards for excellence, uphold the public trust, and ensure that conservation efforts are permanent.
We are elated to have earned this distinction and proud to display the accreditation seal as part of our continuing commitment to protecting the lands and waters of the Chautauqua region.
Permanence
Land trusts help conserve land that is essential to our health and well-being. When land trusts agree to protect land for the benefit of the public, in most cases they do so by promising that the protection is forever. The accreditation program verifies that the land trust has the policies and programs in place to keep this promise, either by caring for the land itself or transferring the land to an entity that can.
Trust
Nonprofit organizations, including land trusts, are increasingly called on to demonstrate their accountability to the public. Accredited land trusts have voluntarily submitted their organizations to an external, independent review of their practices. As a result, accreditation provides the public with the assurance that the land trust displaying the accreditation seal meets established standards for organizational quality and permanent land conservation.
Excellence
Accredited land trusts meet national quality standards for protecting important natural places and working lands forever. These land trusts demonstrate their commitment to excellence by adopting Land Trust Standards and Practices (the ethical and technical guidelines for the responsible operation of a land trust) and meeting the accreditation requirements drawn from them.
