What Is a Local Land Trust?
Land trusts are generally private, nonprofit charitable corporations dedicated to land conservation. They protect land resources through a variety of techniques, most of which involve leveraging their tax exempt status. For decades, Maryland has been the beneficiary of national, regional and statewide land trusts such as the Nature Conservancy (44,000 acres protected), the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and the Maryland Environmental Trusts (63,460 acres). Unlike these larger organizations, local land trusts are generally formed and run by local residents; though the lands they acquire may not meet criteria of the larger organizations, they are extremely valuable on a local scale. Some groups such as the Cecil Land Trust have been combining their land trust function with broader educational and community service goals. Others like the Gunpowder Valley Conservancy have chosen to add a land trust “arm” to an existing organization. And in western Maryland, five local trusts established an asso
