Land Trusts

the direct approach to private cave management and protection

A "land trust" is a private non-profit corporation formed to protect and manage land for particular uses or features by buying or leasing land, or assuming conservation easements on land. The variety of land trusts is enormous. There are some 8,000 land trusts in the U.S. managing hiking trails, lighthouses, natural areas, wetlands, woodlands, farmlands, endangered species habitats, river corridors, spectacular views, etc.--and caves. Forming a land trust is an option for individuals wishing to protect specific caves or cave areas that are not likely to have governmental or other private protection, by organizing to obtain public support.

A "definition" of land trusts

The following are web sites for cave and karst land trusts:

• Michigan Karst Conservancy
• Southeastern Cave Conservancy
• The Indiana Karst Conservancy
• Mid-Atlantic Karst Conservancy
• Missouri Caves and Karst Conservancy
• Texas Cave Management Association
• The Nature Conservancy

The following are Cave Land Trusts that, to the best of our knowledge, don't have web sites yet.

• The Northeast Cave Conservancy
•  

There is a list of all land trust members of the Land Trust Alliance.

The following are web sites for organizations that own caves for preservation purposes, but that do not have a specific "land trust" web site.

National Speleological Society

Bat Conservation International

This page was last updated 03/10/01.

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