What We Do


Valley Land Fund’s mission is to preserve a wide variety of landscapes and serve as a regional resource for other land conservation groups.
Valley Land Fund protects:

  1. FARMLAND to help ensure that local farmers and local families can continue to work the land;
  2. WETLANDS and river corridors, to protect water quality, offer enhanced recreational use and provide natural corridors for wildlife;
  3. WILDLIFE HABITAT, to secure critical land necessary for rare and endangered species;
  4. FOREST LAND, to provide forest-dwelling animals and birds with unfragmented wooded landscapes.

These diverse lands contribute to everyone’s quality of life, providing land to grow local food, creating more space for passive recreation, protecting drinking water, and supporting local economies.

Valley Land Fund also serves as a regional resource, assisting local land trusts and community groups, local and state governments, and private landowners in land protection efforts. VLF can serve either as the lead organizer or as a vital contributor to a project, often with multiple partners. We have helped establish several local groups, and provided legal advice, fundraising assistance, and administration of accounts for specific projects. VLF has worked with towns and cities, pre-acquiring land, identifying conservation parcels, providing moral and technical support for municipal Conservation Commissions, and helping connect towns with funding sources. VLF serves as a “first stop” for landowners interested in protecting their land.

Our success and our strength are signs of your passion. It is through the generosity of hundreds of local supporters, committed landowners, and tireless volunteers, that VLF has been able to save farmland in Sunderland, forest on the Holyoke Range, Lake Warner in Hadley, endangered turtle habitat in West Springfield, and other important places throughout the Valley. We are on the cutting edge of land conservation, willing to act quickly and cooperatively to preserve the special places of the Connecticut River Valley.