Land trusts thrive despite, and because of, the Great Recession — High Country News

• The latest gains bring the total area protected by the nation’s land trusts to 47 million acres — more than twice the area covered by all of the national parks in the Lower 48 states.

• And in recent years, local land trusts have been "saving more land than is lost to development,"

• These trends put California, Colorado and Montana among the top five states nationwide in total private land conserved.

• Jon Christensen is the executive director of the Bill Lane Center for the American West at Stanford University; Jenny Rempel and Judee Burr are researchers at the Center.