Private Land Conservation Organizations
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There are many private land conservation organizations in Rhode Island. These organizations work to purchase and protect land that is critical to the survival of rare and endangered species, and natural communities. Additionally, there are 37 established land trusts in Rhode Island. These groups, which are comprised of volunteer boards work to protect land in their communities.
The largest and most well-known organizations are The Nature Conservancy and the Audubon Society of Rhode Island. This project looked at land acquisition of both organizations as well as local land trusts. Please note that due to partnerships between the state, as well as among each other, there may be some overlap in the numbers reflecting total acreage.
The RIGIS coverage on the right shows land owned by The Nature Conservancy or Municipal Land Trusts, and protected open space land owned by the Audubon Society of Rhode Island. Protected open space (in blue) is also shown to illustrate how much land is owned by private organizations versus protected open space in the state. These are the most recent coverages available for this project. Please note that Openspace 95 and both TNC and ASRI coverages are not up to date (see Inconsistencies and Problems). Therefore, they may not be consistant with the text below. For example, TNC may have purchased more land in the last few years, but it is not evident on the coverage.
The Nature Conservancy owns and manages 15 preserves in the state, acquiring 16,376 acres (as of June 2000) since it's chapter opened in 1989. Working with many conservation partners to preserve land in Rhode Island, The Nature Conservancy has been growing in partnerships with land trusts in Rhode Island. In 1999, more than a quarter of the land-protection projects in which the Conservancy participated in were completed in cooperation with land trusts.
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RI Audubon Society manages 8,000 acres of land at 10 sites and groomed trails in the state. One of the major goals of the Audubon Society is to acquire parcels that are contiguous to critical habitat. Habitat fragmentation is one of the most significant threats to the integrity of ecosystems in Rhode Island. See Future Objectives for more details.
The graph on the left shows land acquisition by the Audubon Society by year from 1990-2000. It is evident that less acreage is being acquired per year, over the last 3 years. This however, does not mean that ASRI is decreasing it's effort in acquiring land for habitat protection. The data reflects land acquistion solely by ASRI. It does not include land acquired through parternships with others (see Inconsistencies and Problems). Therefore, it would be misleading to assume that ASRI is decreasing its effort to acquire land for habitat protection.
