We use multiple tools and strategies to protect places that are important to Tennessee. These include:
Conservation Easements
These voluntary legal agreements made between a landowner and The Land Trust for Tennessee protect lands with important conservation values forever. The landowner continues to own and manage the land while permanently limiting how the land may be developed and subdivided, no matter who owns the land in the future. These agreements are the tool we use most frequently to protect land. Learn more about conserving your land.
Land Acquisitions
From time to time, The Land Trust for Tennessee acquires land through purchases and donations. We typically transfer ownership of the land to another entity or individual with a conservation easement in place.
Community Education
We host hands-on programming and events to educate community members about the importance of land conservation and how they can take action. Our goal is to inspire future generations to become good stewards of the land.
Community Projects
The Land Trust works with communities to expand and protect public parks, natural areas, wildlife refuges, and other public land with government entities and other nonprofit conservation groups.
We use a variety of tools to protect these special places, including holding conservation easements on public land, negotiating land purchases on behalf of others, open space planning, and leading community fundraising efforts.
Stewardship
We take our promise to protect land seriously. Through our stewardship program, we visit every protected property annually, help landowners understand how a conservation easement applies to their land, and work with landowners when they wish to do things like add structures or manage a forest. We work with landowners to remedy easement violations and, in some cases, we may take legal action to uphold the terms of a conservation easement. Read about our Stewardship Program.