Land trust showcasing its Golden-winged Warbler habitat work. Photo courtesy of Mark Scarlett.

Following the NABCI State of the Birds on Private Lands report (2013), the bird conservation community realized just how important land trusts are to private lands conservation. These organizations that actively work to conserve land through conservation easements and/or stewardship of such easements are conserving more than 47 million acres in the U.S. Yet, few bird conservation organizations were partnering with the 1700 individual land trusts in the U.S. or working with the Land Trust Alliance, a national organization focused on supporting and engaging these land trusts.

To remedy this disconnect, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology (the Lab) worked with The Land Trust Alliance and human dimensions researchers Ashley Dayer and Rich Stedman to examine the extent to which land trusts were addressing bird and wildlife conservation, explore motivations and barriers for bird conservation actions, understand how to deliver information to trusts, and develop a research-based strategy to effectively engage land trusts in bird conservation. This information was gathered through interviews and an online survey of land trusts throughout the U.S.

Research Insights

  • Initially, the Lab thought that land trusts needed an online decision support tool, but social science researchers learned that a more basic website with success stories and resources would be more valuable.
  • Land trusts are critically limited by funding, and they reported that they were most likely to engage in new initiatives if they could access new funding.

Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Ron Rohrbaugh teaches a workshop for landowners. Photo courtesy of Sara Barker.

Outcomes

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology created a Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative website with resources, data collection tools, and funding opportunities to advance the pace and impact of land trusts’ protection and stewardship efforts through birds. This website also uses success stories to highlight where land trusts are already engaging in bird conservation. The Lab also developed a small grants program to encourage land trusts to build capacity and engage with other organizations to implement projects that benefit bird conservation on private lands. In its first year, the grant program received 78 applications from land trusts in 29 states.

Additional Information

  • Journal Article: Wildlife Conservation and Private Protected Areas: the discrepancy between land trust mission statements and their perceptions.
  • Tipsheet for bird conservation community wanting to work with land trusts

To learn more about the survey used in this study, contact Ashley Dayer: dayer@vt.edu. For more information about the Land Trust Bird Conservation Initiative, contact Sara Barker: sb65@cornell.edu.