One of Pennsylvania’s 75 Land Trusts

Independence Conservancy is one of Pennsylvania’s seventy-five land trusts working to preserve open space and natural places for future generations. We belong to WeConservePA and to the Land Trust Alliance, a national network of more than 1700 nonprofit organizations whose 100,000 volunteers and 5 million members have preserved over 37 million acres in the U.S. as of 2010.

Locally, Independence Conservancy has permanently preserved 99 acres of farmland, forest, wetlands and riparian areas. Statewide, land trusts have conserved nearly 800,000 acres of farmland, forest, parks, trail corridors and other green spaces that people love.

What is a Land Trust?

A land trust is a nonprofit organization that, as all or part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisition, or by its stewardship of such land or easements.

Land trusts work with landowners and the community to conserve land by accepting donations of land, purchasing land, negotiating private, voluntary conservation agreements on land, and stewarding conserved land through the generations to come.

By effectively saving land, land trusts enhance the economic, environmental and social values of their communities. They provide clean water, fresh air, safe food, places for recreation and a connection to the land that sustains us all.