Resource Library

For more than a century, land trusts in Connecticut have diligently worked to protect the natural and working lands that define our state. As the only statewide land trust service provider, Connecticut Land Conservation Council (CLCC) is proud to work alongside these organizations, supporting their work through grantmaking, advocacy, capacity building programs, and more.

To gain further insights into the state of land conservation in Connecticut, CLCC embarked on a groundbreaking project — a census of all Connecticut land trusts. This census was developed with three objectives:

1. Quantify the pace and scale of land conservation by land trusts — something that has never before been comprehensively documented.
2. Understand land trusts’ current and future conservation priorities, as well as the ways that conservation serves communities across the state.
3. Identify ways to better support land trusts in achieving their near and long-term goals.

Thanks to thoughtful responses from land trusts, CLCC was able to compile a robust dataset that met these objectives. In the following pages we share high-level results, noting that CLCC has further parsed this data to explore correlations, regional trends, and more.

The census results have proved invaluable, shedding light on successes and highlighting areas where CLCC can provide greater support. CLCC will continue to use these insights to shape priorities and the way we serve the land trust community. We again extend our heartfelt thanks to all the land trusts that participated in the census. Your contributions are instrumental in shaping a stronger, more enduring land conservation community in Connecticut.