Intermountain West Joint Venture

Land Trusts

Land trusts play a crucial role in the conservation of avian habitats in the Intermountain West. Land trusts focus mainly on protecting the open space, ecological attributes and cultural values of the region – which often includes important wildlife habitat – through conservation easements. As such, land trusts are inherently in the business of habitat protection. The population-habitat modeling conducted by the IWJV Science Teams will likely infer that, in some landscapes, habitat protection will be the most efficient and plausible approach for maintaining bird populations at prescribed levels. Hundreds of land trusts exist throughout the JV, ranging from small entities with minimal staff to sophisticated organizations that have secured millions in North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA) funding.

The IWJV provides direct assistance to land trusts in securing federal funds for conservation easement acquisition and developing conservation planning priorities that identify key avian habitats in need of protection. We have provided valuable assistance to Teton Regional Land Trust, Rio Grande Headwaters Land Trust, and others in securing NAWCA Grants. Likewise, we are working closely with land trusts through our Farm Bill Initiative to better utilize USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service easement programs in combination with land trust easements. We also provide land trusts with biological planning and conservation design that build a case for private funding directed to land trust easements in key landscapes.