Land Trust for Southeast Louisiana (LTSL) is not just about respecting the land, but respecting the people who help to make the land so special.  Being a locally based organization, LTSL has a definite niche to fill.  The larger national organizations cannot always capitalize on the smaller land preservation opportunities.  And because of its grassroots origins, LTSL is able to do outreach and education so that the community can become aware of the options for land preservation.

Why would landowners want to protect their property by easement?

Although tax benefits may be an incentive for many, most donors give an easement with the desire to protect the land’s natural attributes.  Someone with forty or fifty or even several hundred acres of valuable woodlands, farmland, or land along waterways might be looking for the opportunity to assure that their lands won’t be altered dramatically in the years to come.  Landowners retain ownership of their land, can pass it on to future generations and even sell the property, as long as the new owner realizes that protection restrictions continue permanently.  Essentially LTSL would take on the responsibility of maintaining the quality and condition of the land while the owner continues to enjoy its assets.  This perpetual obligation requires long-term management and resources to enforce the restrictions.

As a result, LTSL has established a Stewardship Endowment and a Conservation Easement Defense Endowment for long-term management purposes.  Typically the landowner will participate in this effort by making a donation to these funds.  An individual who may not have land to put under easement can contribute to these endowments and still play an important role in protecting the valuable and environmentally unique habitats of our region.

LTSL is all about communities and their ties to the land.  The board already makes up a diverse group of community members.  From hunters to educators and businessmen to nature lovers, LTSL is here to work with the Florida Parishes to preserve what makes our region so environmentally unique and therefore precious.

The interests and motives of each community member supportive of land conservation may be different but the very desire for preservation is what unifies  them.  LTSL is the vehicle to make it happen.  Land conservation is a new concept in Louisiana, but because the people in the Florida Parishes have such strong connections with their land, LTSL can be a natural tool in helping to protect critical and imperiled areas.  Because trust and accountability are essential in building an effective land trust, LTSL has formed ties with the Land Trust Alliance, a national organization of affiliated land trusts across the nation.  In order to avoid reinventing the wheel, LTSL follows guidelines and standard practices and procedures set up by them.  In this way, the outreach to landowners with significant natural assets is based on solid footing.  Some land trusts in other states have even become effective policy-making organizations on the local and state government level.