Conservation Toolkit

U.S. Forest Service | Environment and Natural Resources

Land Trusts and Conservation Partners in Wyoming

Section Outline

• Land Trusts in Wyoming and the Region
• Conservation Buyers in Wyoming
• Summary Table of Land Trusts and Conservation Organizations Working in the Rocky Mountain region
• Summary Table of Land Trusts and Conservation Organizations Working in Wyoming
• Regional/national, state, and local organizations providing analysis, information, and coordination

  Land Trusts in Wyoming and the Region

  Land trusts are non-profit organizations that endeavor to conserve land by facilitating conservation easements or land acquisitions. In Wyoming, there are local, statewide, and national organizations operating under missions to protect open space, wildlife habitat, scenic or aesthetic value, working farms and ranches, and/or other community values.

  Conservation Buyers in Wyoming

  A conservation buyer is a private individual or a group of individuals interested in protecting land with important resource values. The buyer may purchase land and then donate or sell an easement to a land trust or government agency. The buyer realizes tax benefits from a donation. The buyer may then either keep or resell the land on the open market at the reduced value resulting from the easement.

  Because these arrangements require convergences of the buyer’s and seller’s needs, some land trusts operate “conservation buyer programs” to connect conservation buyers with properties the trusts have determined to have important resource values. Often, the land trusts’ programs simply identify properties of conservation value. Some land trusts purchase the land themselves, place an easement on it, and then resell it less the value of the easement. Land trusts operate conservation buyer programs across the nation, and several land trusts operate conservation buyer programs in Wyoming.

  

  
  
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