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Trust for Public Land
Logo for the Trust for Public Land
Formation 1972; 53 years ago (1972)
Founder Huey Johnson
Founded at San Francisco, California, US
Location
  • San Francisco, California, US
President and Chief Executive Officer
 Diane Regas

The Trust for Public Land is a group in the U.S. that works to "create parks and protect land for people." Their goal is to make sure communities are healthy and great places to live for everyone, now and in the future. Since starting in 1972, they have helped create 5,000 parks and saved over 3 million acres of land across the United States. They also helped get more than 500 laws passed, which brought in $70 billion for parks and open spaces. The Trust for Public Land also studies and shares important information about parks, land protection, and how cities can deal with climate change. Their main office is in San Francisco, and they have about 30 other offices around the U.S. They are one of the biggest groups in America that protects land.

What the Trust for Public Land Does

The Trust for Public Land is known for its work in cities. They help build playgrounds and community gardens in places like New York City. They also helped create the 606 park in Chicago and green alleys in Los Angeles. They have programs to make cities "Climate-Smart" in 20 American cities. One big goal is "The 10-Minute Walk" idea. This plan wants every person in U.S. cities to live within a 10-minute walk of a good park or open space.

The group also works to protect land so people can visit it. They have helped add land to famous places like Yosemite National Park, the Appalachian Trail, and Cape Cod National Seashore. They also work on projects that celebrate fairness for all people. For example, they helped create the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and the Stonewall National Monument. They also helped the Kashia Coastal Reserve.

The Trust for Public Land is a land trust, but they are a bit different. They usually do not keep the land they protect. Instead, they work with local people, government groups, and other nature groups. They find projects to create parks or save land. Then, they help plan, fund, protect, or build these spaces. The land usually goes to local, state, or federal government groups, or to other nature organizations.

Besides creating parks and saving open spaces, the Trust for Public Land also pushes for public money to protect nature. They work through campaigns and laws to make sure there is enough money for parks and conservation programs. They often work with their partner group, the Trust for Public Land Action Fund, to do this.

The Trust for Public Land also does research and shares information. They have national databases and tools about U.S. parks, protected spaces, and how to pay for conservation. Some of these tools include ParkScore, ParkServe, and "Climate-Smart Cities" Decision Support Tools.

How They Work

The Trust for Public Land uses several main ways to achieve its goals:

  • Parks for People: This plan focuses on making sure people in U.S. cities and towns have easy access to nature. They do this by creating parks, playgrounds, trails, community gardens, and other outdoor public spaces close to home.
  • Our Land: This plan is about protecting wild areas and other open spaces. They focus on making sure people can visit these natural places for outdoor fun.
  • Climate-Smart Cities™ Program: This program helps cities figure out risks from climate change. It helps them plan ways to become stronger and find places for parks and green spaces. These green spaces can help with things like floods and heat. They use special computer tools for each city.
  • 10-Minute Walk Campaign: This effort works with other groups to make sure everyone in urban America lives within a 10-minute walk of a good park. Since 2017, 200 U.S. mayors have promised to work on this for their cities.
  • Center for City Park Excellence: This center studies parks and works to make urban parks better. It also manages the Trust for Public Land's ParkServe, ParkScore, and Parkology platforms. These tools provide maps and data about park systems, rank cities by their parks, and share information on how to create great parks.

Services They Offer

The Trust for Public Land offers different services to help communities:

  • Plan: They use computer mapping tools (GIS) to help plan green spaces. This includes planning trails and looking at large natural areas.
  • Fund: They work to get public money for protecting land. They offer help with campaigns, research, and economic studies.
  • Protect: They work with landowners, government groups, and other nature groups. They help buy and protect land for parks and open spaces.
  • Create: They help communities plan, design, build, and fix parks. They involve local people in the process to make sure the parks fit the community's needs.

A Look Back: Their History

The Trust for Public Land started in San Francisco in 1972. It was founded by Huey Johnson and other lawyers and nature lovers. Huey Johnson wanted to create a group that would use new ways of buying and selling land to save it for people to use. Another goal was to bring the idea of nature protection to cities, where more and more people were living.

In their early years (1970s and 80s), they had programs like:

  • The Urban Land Program: This led to new parks and gardens in cities like Oakland, San Francisco, and New York City.
  • The Public Land Program: This helped create big parks like the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and Cuyahoga Valley National Park.
  • The Land Trust Program: This program helped start or train many local land trusts across the country. In the 1980s, the Trust for Public Land helped create the Land Trust Alliance to support these local groups.

The Trust for Public Land Action Fund

The Trust for Public Land is a charity group, which means there are rules about how much they can spend on pushing for new laws. In 2000, they started a partner group called The Conservation Campaign. This group, now called the Trust for Public Land Action Fund, can spend more money on these efforts. It often works with the Trust for Public Land to help pass laws that provide money for protecting land at local and state levels.

Cool Projects They've Done

The Trust for Public Land has worked on many important projects across the U.S. Here are some of them:

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