Our Vision
Placer Land Trust believes that the preservation of wild open spaces, farms and ranches, natural resources, and natural playgrounds are vital to our quality of life today and in the future. Protecting these landscapes is essential to successfully build and sustain connections among people, their community, and the natural environment.
Our Mission
Placer Land Trust works with willing landowners and conservation partners to permanently protect and care for natural and agricultural lands in Placer County for current and future generations.
Placer Land Trust is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public benefit organization incorporated in 1991.
Land Acknowledgment
The protected lands in Placer Land Trust’s care are the ancestral lands of the Maidu, Miwok, Nisenan and Washoe tribes. These lands were forcibly seized, and these tribes were unjustly treated. Although Placer Land Trust cannot change the past, we seek to work with local Native American tribes where we can to help address this injustice.
Core Values
Respect for Landowners and Private Property Rights. We acknowledge our debt to past and current landowners, including indigenous communities and farmers and ranchers, who provide valuable knowledge about conservation and long-term stewardship. We also believe that farmers and ranchers are irreplaceable stewards of Placer County’s working lands, and we support their willingness to protect land to farm and ranch in the future. We respect private property rights and are committed to working only with willing landowners on voluntary conservation.
Partnership and Collaboration. Partnership and collaboration are crucial to our success. We prioritize working with diverse partners to ensure that our conservation efforts are as impactful as possible. Through collaboration we bring out and utilize the core strengths of each partner to benefit the community. In each project we seek win-win-win outcomes for landowners, partners, and the land.
Integrity, Accountability, and Adaptability. We are dedicated to fulfilling our mission with integrity and accountability. We acknowledge that we have learned much from the past and we have much still to learn. To ensure that we remain relevant and effective, we will balance science-based best practices with adaptivity, creativity and risk-taking as we face evolving challenges.
Meeting Community Needs. Our conservation work must help meet community needs as they evolve over time, and all community members should feel welcome to be a part of our work and benefit from our work. That means focusing on a diverse set of projects to provide broad public benefit, including projects that protect clean air and water, promote biodiversity and adaptation to climate change, reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires, promote local food production, respect indigenous culture and traditional ecological knowledge, and/or provide thoughtful access to open space. That also means expanding opportunities for underrepresented community members to connect with us as well as seeking projects that address unmet community needs.
Intergenerational and Multifaceted Impact. Future generations deserve a chance to live, work and play in Placer County much as we enjoy today. Permanently protected lands and waters sustain our quality of life and make our environment healthier and our communities and economies stronger. Protected lands also provide a place for people to connect with nature and each other, find joy, and lead richer lives. We see permanent conservation and responsible stewardship as the best ways to preserve Placer County’s unparalleled ecological, agricultural, and recreational land and resources for future generations.
Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access to Land (IDEAL). Placer Land Trust seeks to protect land for the sake of the environment, the benefit of people, and the connections between them. Just as diversity strengthens a natural ecosystem, we know it makes our communities stronger and more resilient. Our long-term success depends on inclusive community support now and in the future, and on staying relevant to current and future generations.
We believe our region’s quality of life depends in part on equitable access to a healthy outdoors, yet our present-day enjoyment of the land stems from a privilege that is not afforded to all. Our vision is that all people — especially those who have been excluded or underrepresented — have a voice, a role, and feel a sense of belonging on our shared lands. We hope all who enjoy these natural lands and open spaces are inspired to play an active role in furthering our mission. We will continue to work intentionally towards this goal until our leadership, membership, and footprint ultimately reflect the diversity of identity, background, and experiences of our beautiful region — and then we will strive to sustain that diversity forever.