Land Trusts

Maryland Environmental Trust’s Land Trust Assistance Program helps citizen groups cultivate local land trusts for the conservation of open space, farmland, woodland, and other natural and historic areas. Land trusts are not-for-profit corporations designed to protect land from development, using conservation easements, gifts or purchases of land, or promotion of existing local, state, or Federal easement programs.

Through collaborative partnerships the Land Trust Assistant Programs seeks to build strong and sustainable land trusts by increasing organizational capacity, developing community programs that support the diverse spectrum of conservation, implementing Standards and Practices and supporting activities to ensure the viability of Maryland’s land conservation community.

Our Land Trust Assistance Program offers local land trusts with cooperative agreements with Maryland Environmental Trust the following technical assistance, training, funding and cooperative land management services:

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE to support programming, innovation and to foster stronger, better connected land trust, including establishing conservation strategies and criteria, record keeping, monitoring trainings and toolsets, capacity building mini-grants through the Janice Hollmann Grant Program and other organizational tasks;

TRAINING for directors, staff, board members and volunteers to build land trust capacity and provide opportunities to grow as an organization, including the annual Maryland Land Conservation Conference, quarterly Land Trust Roundtables and other trainings and events. For more information visit the Events page 

HOLDING CONSERVATION EASEMENTS JOINTLY with land trusts as Co-Grantee, allows property owners who donate easements to both trusts to be eligible for all benefits available to Maryland Environmental Trust donors; land trusts would also receive stewardship assistance for these easements; the cooperative agreement necessary for co-holding with Maryland Environmental Trust is also a legal requirement for participation in Maryland's Rural Legacy Program. For more information contact an easement planner in your region;

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PUBLICATIONS, including our easement application, model easement document, and other resources. In addition, land trusts are eligible to participate in the Maryland Land Trusts group on The Learning Center, an informal forum for partner local land trusts who are working in Maryland and are members of the Land Trust Alliance.

For information on the Land Trust Assistance Program contact the Land Trust Coordinator.

To learn more about the local land trust in your community download the Directory of Maryland Land Trusts.