Article on Local Land Trusts

Meagan Roach (William and Mary School of Law) recently published an article entitled, Local Land Trusts: A Comparative Analysis in Search of an Improved Template for Land Trusts, 38 Wm. & Mary Envt. L. & Pol’y Rev. 767-792 (2014).  Provided below is a portion of the article’s introduction:

Local land trusts are one of several tools utilized in an effort to preserve land and to protect the environment. Land trusts serve as a vehicle to ensure the protection of a landscape, habitat, or other valued resource by placing ownership of the land in the hands of a private nonprofit organization. Although local land trusts vary in size, effectiveness, and purpose, they provide a historically dependable mechanism to effectuate the goals of preservation. Despite the overall effectiveness of land trusts in managing property and accomplishing policy goals, there are discrepancies among the individual successes of the various land trusts throughout the United States.

This Note consists of a comparative analysis of two local land trusts, the Aspen Valley Land Trust in the Rocky Mountain Region and the Wildlands Trust of New England, in an effort to recommend a model template to be used when creating future or reconstructing current local land trusts. The Aspen Valley Land Trust of the Rocky Mountain Region and the Wildlands Trust of the New England area are two successful land trusts in their respective regions.