LAND CONSERVATION

The Garden Club of America has been an advocate for land conservation since its founding in 1913. Open space - both public and private - is increasingly recognized as a critical resource for climate mitigation and adaptation, for its ability to maintain biodiversity, and to promote human health and well-being. Land conservation has many forms and takes place on lands that fall under various jurisdictions: national, state, municipal, private land trusts, and tribal lands. The Garden Club of America supports land conservation at all scales and in all forms to ensure our country has enough protected land for the needs of our diverse people, plants, and animals.

PUBLIC LANDS

States and municipalities also hold vast areas of public land. From Central Park in New York to California’s Redwood State Parks network, some of America’s most iconic open spaces rely on state and local governments for protection. These protected lands are fundamental to habitat connectivity and migratory corridors and provide a wide range of climate adaptation and mitigation benefits, often in some of the most densely populated areas of the country.

The Garden Club of America advocates for conservation as a top priority in public lands policy. Our public lands, including our parks, refuges, and forests, sustain fish and wildlife, provide clean air, and are a source of water for all Americans. They also support local communities by providing millions of jobs.

PRIVATE LANDS

The United States is the only country in the world that has protected substantial portions of open space through private land conservation (approximately 61 million acres). Private land trusts and public/private partnerships allow citizens to protect land in perpetuity through a variety of structures including conservation easements. The Garden Club of America encourages voluntary land conservation in rural, suburban, and urban places and advocates for sound land conservation policies and fun.

TRIBAL LANDS

An essential part of America’s land conservation efforts takes place on the 52 million acres of designated tribal lands. The Garden Club of America recognizes and honors the indigenous heritage of Native Americans, Native Alaskans, and Native Hawaiians. The GCA respects their deep conservation knowledge, gained from millennia as caretakers of our lands, waters, and wildlife, and supports efforts to conserve their lands to protect cultural heritage, plants, animals and habitats essential to tribal practices and identity for future generations.

The Garden Club of America supports federal, state, and local legislation, policy, and individual action that address the following:

STEWARDSHIP

• Provide rigorous protection of our National Parks as gateways to environmental education, our country’s history and heritage, and the benefits of protecting our natural resources.
• Protect viewsheds surrounding our National Parks.
• Uphold the President’s authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906 to protect land and waterways as well as historic and cultural sites.
• Support land management practices that mitigate the effects of climate change, sequester carbon, foster biodiversity, and protect native plant communities and endangered species.
• Connect public and private lands to create wildlife corridors for migration of plants and animals.
• Encourage the use of native plants and prevent, control, and eradicate invasive species with minimal use of toxic herbicides.
• Employ adequate land use planning techniques that maximize wildlife corridors and habitat, encourage recreation, and preserve historic and cultural resources.
• Provide adequate financial support for the agencies that manage public lands to ensure that qualified personnel, including plant scientists, are available to adequately steward the lands.
• Replace, where feasible, aging infrastructure with natural infrastructure and environmentally sound alternatives.
• Encourage review of ways to improve revenue generation in, and self-funding of, public lands.

LAND CONSERVATION

• Increase the pace of land conservation efforts, both public and private, to protect ecological resources.
• Encourage collaboration between government managers and private owners of parcels adjacent to public lands and provide incentives for such landowners to follow good conservation practices.
• Support federal and state tax incentives for private conservation of adjacent or infill holdings of land.
• Support planning efforts that rebuild/utilize brownfield areas rather than converting open space for development purposes.
• Continue to advocate for full funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund of 1965 (via the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020) and the use of the federal portion of the funding for its intended purpose.

ENFORCEMENT

• Support landmark environmental laws such as the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020.