While unified in their mission to protect the landscapes we love, land trusts across the nation are responding to resource management challenges in various ways. These case studies highlight examples different approaches to achieving strategic conservation planning, building resilience through vulnerability assessments, and adaptation and mitigation projects. Education efforts that provide introductory information about climate change to support conservation, as well as carbon finance projects, are also being collected and compiled. You can search by region or by using the advanced search option. While every land trust must determine how to best achieve their conservation objectives, these case studies and the resources within this Toolkit are here to help provide examples and support the more than 1.5 million dedicated professionals within the Land Trust Alliance’s national conservation community.
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See our full list of case studies
Adding the Impacts of Climate Change to a Strategic Plan: Big Sur Land Trust
This CAKEx case study details how Big Sur Land Trust is working to anticipate the impacts climate change will have and preparing management strategies to address shifting conditions.
More »Bald Head Island Conservancy: Catalyzing Small Changes in Climate Change Adaptation
To support climate change adaptation planning the Bald Head Island Conservancy has developed a comprehensive public outreach campaign to help educate community members about potential impacts to the island and individual choices that can help improve the socioecological system’s resilience.
More »Building Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change Through Local Conservation Efforts: A South Kingstown Land Trust Pilot Project
Building Capacity to Adapt to Climate Change Through Local Conservation Efforts is a report resulting from a two-year pilot project aiming to foster climate change adaptation at the community level.
More »Building Clean Energy in the Hudson Valley – Communications Product Analysis
Scenic Hudson’s “Building Clean Energy” website highlights some best practices in climate communications.
More »Building Resilience with Natural Adaptations to Change
Bainbridge Island Land Trust is working with property owners to implement natural adaptation solutions to build more resilient coastal systems. The Powel Shoreline Restoration Project removed shoreline bulkheading to enhance coastal habitats and reduce risks of destructive undercutting, leveraging a failing bulkhead to produce an adaptive win-win solution to adapt to change.
More »Climate Change and Forest Health: Helping landowners with tough decisions
Landscapes in the intermountain west are becoming increasingly warmer, drier, and fragmented. Additionally, naturally-occurring wildfires are increasingly suppressed, eliminating the health benefits of these events. Such patterns and others have reduced the resilience of forests and given way to insect pest and disease outbreaks. Gallatin Valley Land Trust (GVLT) in Bozeman, Montana, has documented these changing conditions and is supporting landowners in addressing forest threats. GVLT provides information and expertise to private landowners about how to treat and prevent further outbreaks. They also help landowners identify financial resources to support the work of forest management. In a changing climate, proactively addressing these issues helps vegetation communities remain resilient, enhancing the conservation values of private land.
More »Climate Change Education Partnership Program - Youth Education Across The Nation
The Climate Change Education Partnership (CCEP) is a strategic campaign planning project funded by the National Science Foundation and conducted in partnership with USNPS, USFWS, and the National Parks Conservation Association. The goal of this partnership was to develop climate change communication tools and resources for interpretive staff at national parks and national wildlife refuges across the country.
More »Collaboration: Land Trusts Working Together to Strengthen Coastal Resilience in Maine
By maintaining and sharing resources and continuing to convene and build this network of practitioners, MCHT aims to continue to support ongoing state-wide and region-specific conservation action planning dialogs.
More »Corridors and Climate: Planning for Regional Species Flow - Lakes Region Climate-Inclusive Conservation Plan Looks Beyond Borders
Conservation organizations in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire have been collaborating since 2010 to develop and implement a regional strategic conservation plan to address regional conservation opportunities and threats. This cutting-edge assessment and planning initiative identified a connected network of climate-resilient sites with the characteristics needed to ensure plant and animal species can persist as the climate changes. By incorporating this and other data, including habitat and species movements identified in New Hampshire’s Wildlife Action Plan, these organizations are now able to better identify and protect resilient sites in the Lakes Region that will support plant and animal adaptation as the climate changes in New Hampshire.
More »Digital Coast - Climate Adaptation Case Studies
Digital Coast’s Climate Adaptation Case Studies: Stories from the field, highlights how communities across the U.S. are adapting to climate change.
More »Ecological Corridors Protect Wildlife Movement and Water Quality in Michigan
Regionally planned ecological corridors are being implemented in Michigan to protect wildlife and water quality.
More »Forest Adaptation Resources: Climate Change Tools and Approaches for Land Managers
Forest Adaptation Resources: Climate Change Tools and Approaches for Land Managers offers resources to inform adaptation responses for forest land managers.
More »Funding Conservation with Carbon Sequestration - Downeast Lakes Land Trust
Downeast Lakes Land Trust’s carbon project covers more than 19,000 acres of the trust’s 33,700 Farm Cove Community Forest in eastern Maine, and registered nearly 200,000 offsets; each offset is equivalent to one ton of carbon dioxide.
More »Go Zero - The Conservation Fund’s Reforestation Program
The Conservation Fund’s forest carbon offset projects are developed with careful consideration of climate and community benefits. The Fund’s carbon program supports both conservation-based forest management and forest restoration projects in some of America’s favorite places.
More »Incorporating Climate Resiliency into Conservation Efforts at an Eight-Town Regional Scale
This OSI fact sheet highlights how a regional conservation partnership is incorporating climate resiliency into conservation efforts at a regional scale.
More »Jefferson Land Trust's Conservation Plan and Forward-Facing Forestry
After five years of work, Jefferson Land Trust’s Conservation Plan, a long-range, hundred-year vision of county growth and resource stewardship, was completed in 2010. JLT’s projects highlight how strategic planning can effectively align complementary management objectives such as stewarding sustainable working lands, conserving habitat, providing recreation, and enhancing overall resilience of ecosystems.
More »Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation: Resiliency Planning
The Lake Pontchartrain Basin Foundation (LPBF) works to restore and preserve natural resources within the watershed. Restoration projects combined with community education and outreach to improve land management practices have yielded measurable water quality improvements. By increasing protection of natural features such as marshes, barrier islands, and ridges, conservation efforts help protect surrounding communities – both ecological and socio-economic – from the impacts of increasingly stronger hurricanes and sea level rise.
More »Land Protection Efforts to Support Climate Resiliency and Wildlife Connectivity: Vital Ground's Landscape-level Conservation Planning
Drawing on Vital Ground’s example, land trusts can inform and identify opportunities to integrate private lands into species-specific or landscape-level conservation needs.
More »Lowell Leaders in Stewardship - Youth Education Program
Lowell Leaders in Stewardship is an after-school environmental education program that offers STEM-based environmental education programs.
More »Maine Coast Heritage Trust - Communications Product Analysis
Maine Coast Heritage Trust’s fundraising mailer “Marshes for Tomorrow” highlights some best practices in climate communications.
More »Marin Agricultural Land Trust – Enhancing Carbon Sequestration
The Marin Carbon Project is working to respond to the rapid pace of global climate change by enhancing carbon sequestration in rangeland, agricultural, and forest soils through applied research, demonstration, and implementation. These efforts aim to enable landowners and land managers of agricultural ecosystems to serve as stewards of soil health and to undertake carbon farming in a manner that can improve on-farm productivity and viability, enhance ecosystem functions, and stop and reverse climate change.
More »Nature-based Solutions to Address Global Societal Challenges
This groundbreaking in-depth international report describes the development of the concept of “Nature Based Solutions” and details applications to global resource management challenges including water scarcity, human health, and climate change. Part B provides a host of case study examples including efforts to reduce flood risk and provide storm protection in coastal systems in the United States.
More »Nebraska Land Trust - Crafting Flexible Easements to Respond to Change
At Nebraska Land Trust flexible easements further long-term management objectives. As climate conditions present new management threats, it is important that conservation easements allow for the flexibility to mitigate and adapt to these impacts.
More »North Florida Land Trust – Strategic Conservation Mapping
The North Florida Land Trust has used 26 natural resource criteria to map and prioritize strategic conservation objectives in a seven-county region. The resulting North Florida Conservation Priorities map offers a quantitative guide of conservation values, informing acquisition and management priorities in this area.
More »North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership - using geospatial tools to build resilience
The North Quabbin Regional Landscape Partnership is using geospatial tools to identify conservation priorities to support resiliency in the face of climate change.
More »Otsego Land Trust’s Socially Responsible Investments Support Conservation Goals
Otsego Land Trust’s socially responsible investments support conservation goals and objectives, aligning the organization’s money with its mission.
More »Pacific Forest Trust: Carbon Projects to Mitigate Climate Change
The Pacific Forest Trust is a pioneer of approaches and standards used to create forest climate policies including carbon emissions reductions or offset projects which harness and protect the natural ability of forests to accumulate and hold carbon, acting as carbon “sinks” and providing essential climate benefits.
More »Pacifica Land Trust: Restoration and Managed Retreat of Pacific State Beach
In California Pacifica Land Trust works with other partners to restore wetlands and implement a managed retreat strategy for Pacifica State Beach to reduce flooding risks.
More »Planning for Big, Connected Conservation – Kentucky Natural Lands Trust
Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (KNLT) is working to protect, connect, and restore wildlands, large forest tracts, and migratory corridors.
More »Planning for Marsh Migration at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge
Blackwater 2100 is a collaborative strategic conservation plan that aims to address salt marsh loss and migration in Maryland’s Chesapeake Bay.
More »PROTECTING THE PATHWAYS: A Climate Change Adaptation Framework for Hudson River Estuary Tidal Wetlands
Scenic Hudson’s Hudson River Estuary (HRE) wetland study examined the projected persistence of current wetlands, their loss to inundation, and the formation of new wetlands as measures of the habitat’s resilience to sea level rise (SLR). Under higher rates of SLR tidal wetland resilience in the estuary will depend more heavily on successful horizontal wetland migration into new areas.
More »Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments
The National Wildlife Federation’s Scanning the Conservation Horizon: A Guide to Climate Change Vulnerability Assessments is designed to assist fish and wildlife managers and other conservation and resource professionals to better plan, execute, and interpret climate change vulnerability assessments.
More »Scenic Hudson: Projecting and Buffering Against Sea Level Rise Impacts
In New York, Scenic Hudson is conserving land in 82 communities in ten counties along the Hudson River to buffer against future sea level rise impacts. By targeting key properties for acquisition efforts, this land trust is working to ensure that natural processes such as marsh migration can continue to provide valuable ecological services as well as mitigate the effects of rising waters throughout the estuary.
More »Scenic Hudson's Focus on Youth Education
Scenic Hudson’s youth education programs offer a climate change curriculum as well as other teaching resources and learning opportunities.
More »Shellfisher Preserve - Farming shellfish and adapting to changing oceans through social enterprise
The Peconic Land Trust’s Shellfisher Preserve is a collaborative enterprise that combines conservation with aquaculture activities to raise funds for property stewardship and further research on the Peconic Bay Estuary.
More »Shifting Shorelines, Shifting Conservation Strategies
This publication provides case studies and geospatial best practices for incorporating sea level rise into wetland conservation priorities to support adaptation.
More »South Kingstown Land Trust – Integrating Adaptation into Conservation Planning
The South Kingstown Land Trust (SKLT)’s vulnerability assessment and resulting conservation planning efforts identify organizational goals, natural resource assets, and management priorities. This iterative adaptive management approach enables the land trust to focus stewardship activities on critical ecosystems while allowing the flexibility to acknowledge uncertainties and revisit results. By integrating climate change adaptation considerations into conservation planning, SKLT is able to address changing environmental conditions using an informed and methodical approach, and to plan future acquisitions and restoration projects based on their stewardship objectives.
More »Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy's Wau-Ke-Na Conservation Master Plan
The Southwest Michigan Land Conservancy (SWMLC) focuses land management and acquisition efforts on maintaining and improving natural communities. When working to support ecological health, climate change is an import, but at times divisive concern. By focusing on resiliency, SWMLC is able to concentrate management planning discussions and implementation projects on ways to ensure that habitats are able to persist through constantly changing conditions.
More »The Climate of Conservation in America: 50 Stories in 50 States
In the Climate of Conservation in America: 50 Stories in 50 States USFWS highlights various was resource managers are responding to change.
More »The Conservation Fund's Focus on Youth Education
The Conservation Fund works to connect children to the places we love as well as to support educational opportunities to foster a stewardship ethic that sustains healthy, vibrant communities.
More »The Elkhorn Slough Foundation - Clearing the Floodplain, Adapting to Change
The ESF has been responding to potential climate change impacts by working cooperatively to study and address salt marsh loss. In addition to working with agencies and regional research facilities, ESF conservation projects such as constructing water control structures to adapt to rising sea levels and acquisition and management efforts to “clear the floodplain” address climate change challenges by allowing for migration of tidal marshes and building ecological resilience.
More »The Hawaiian Islands Land Trust - Waihe’e Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge
Sea level rise amplifies hazards such as coastal erosion, inundation due to storm surge, extreme tides, and tsunami, and is projected to lead to more frequent and increasingly severe flooding. To respond to these threats conservation efforts on the 277-acre Waihe’e Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge aim to mitigate impacts of sea level rise, promote habitat restoration, and support food security and community sustainability.
More »The Nature Conservancy CA – Connecting Multiple Resource Benefit Management to Resiliency Planning
To inform management decisions in the region, TNC-CA and partners conducted comprehensive climate change planning and vulnerability assessments for this area. The climate change planning effort began by identifying six key species and habitats in the Mount Hamilton project area.
More »Tug Hill Tomorrow - Communication Product Analysis
Tug Hill Tomorrow Land Trust’s “What We Are Doing, What You Can Do” webpage highlights several best practices in climate communications.
More »Updates from Columbia Land Conservancy - Data Driven Conservation
The Columbia Land Conservancy is using data to support targeted planning to protect migration corridors.
More »Vermont Land Trust - Communications Product Analysis
Vermont Land Trust’s story Connecting Habitat and Neighbors highlights some best practices in climate communications.
More »Vermont Land Trust - Targeted Acquisitions for Wildlife and Ecosystems
The Vermont Land Trust executed a targeted 163 acre land acquisition to help struggling black bears move between the Green Mountain and Taconic ranges. Working to connect these vast open spaces in Vermont and New York enhances the ability of bears to move from their home ranges to feeding habitat, and increases connectivity for a variety of wildlife.
More »Watch Hill Conservancy – Building Knowledge to Respond to Change
In Rhode Island, the Watch Hill Conservancy (the Conservancy or WHC) works to preserve, conserve, maintain, and enhance the scenic, open space and historical values and the character of the area. In addition to promoting preservation, the Conservancy runs educational programs and works to acquire and preserve interests in real property in order to support the continued vitality and sustainability of the community. WHC partners with the Watch Hill Fire District to protect and manage the Napatree Point Conservation Area, a dynamic peninsula system that includes diverse ecosystem types and offers a variety of educational and recreational opportunities to people in this region.
More »Wetlands Restoration - The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County
Wetlands restoration efforts on this working farm protect human land uses and improve the surrounding slough system.
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