OUR HISTORY

We are an organization built on the spirit of collaboration.

In 2006, Western Reserve Land Conservancy was created by the largest-ever merger of land trusts in the United States. Eight local land trusts in northern Ohio voluntarily joined forces to form a private, nonprofit conservation organization for a region that stretches from Sandusky Bay to the Pennsylvania border and from Lake Erie to Wayne County.

 

The merging organizations were Chagrin River Land Conservancy, Bratenahl Land Conservancy, Headwaters Landtrust, Hudson Land Conservancy, Medina Summit Land Conservancy, PLACE, Tinkers Creek Land Conservancy and Firelands Land Conservancy. This regional initiative came about after a pro bono study by Boston Consulting Group determined that a voluntary merger would be the most effective way to collaborate. Four years later, the Land Conservancy grew again by merging with Grand River Partners.

 

Our collaborative land-protection efforts have produced results. The eight local land trusts that merged to form the Land Conservancy in 2006 had collectively preserved about 8,000 acres. In the four-year span that followed the merger, we preserved 13,402 acres – a 167 percent increase on a 20-year total. In 2009, the Land Conservancy was one of 30 semifinalists for The Collaboration Prize, a national award for which more than 650 nonprofits were nominated.

wrlc map