Tackling the Greatest Challenge in Land Conservation

America is projected to lose 13 million acres of forestland by 2050. This represents the greatest land conservation challenge today. The Conservation Fund is the leading organization in the country working to combat that loss. Through our Working Forest Fund®, TCF protects the many benefits these forests provide to communities and nature.

Photo by Jerry Monkman.

America’s large-scale working forests are typically investor-owned and managed for maximum financial return. Every year, private landowners sell hundreds of thousands of acres of forests, often through auction. As America continues to grow and develop, our forests are broken up into smaller and smaller pieces — never again will they resemble the vast canopied spaces we think of when we imagine a forest. Once broken up, these large forests lose their ability to support local timber-based economies. They are at risk of being developed for residential subdivision and commercial development.

The Conservation Fund recognized this threat early and knew we had a role to play in protecting this vital national resource. By acting quickly when forestland becomes available, TCF can purchase at-risk forests and create permanent protections that prevent them from being broken up or developed in the future.

Our model is simple and effective. We buy forests of high conservation value, manage them sustainably, then secure public and private funding to permanently protect them — primarily through Working Forest Conservation Easements. (What is an easement? An easement is a legal tool that determines how land can be used and protected forever.) We resell these forests back to the private market, forever protected as working forests.

The need is acute and urgent. The ongoing loss of forestland has far-reaching implications to climate, our communities, water quality, recreation and many animals that call forestland home.

• Working forests sustain economic productivity for neighboring communities as well as hunting, fishing and other recreation and open space opportunities for millions of visitors.
• Working forests provide more than 2 million U.S.-based jobs. These jobs will be lost as land is converted to other uses or sold into smaller and smaller parcels.
• Forests sequester over half a billion metric tons of CO2 per year, cleaning our air and helping fight climate change.
• U.S. forests filter fresh water that 150 million Americans in 68,000 communities consume every day.

Photo by Carl Heilman II.