Private Land Conservation Resources Conservation Easements Private property owners are preserving land as natural areas through the use of conservation easements. The University of Ilinois Extension provides a concise summary and additional links at http://web.aces.uiuc.edu/tabloid/ConservationEasements.html. Land Trust Alliance Founded in 1982, the Land Trust Alliance, http://www.lta.org, is the national leader of the private land conservation movement, promoting voluntary land conservation across the country and providing resources, leadership and training to the nation's 1,200-plus nonprofit, grassroots land trusts, helping them to protect important open spaces. Scorecard Tallies Environmental Health See "Scorecard," a leading environmental web site tallying the health of your neighborhood and county based on state and federal databases from environmental defense. http://www.scorecard.org/ Wildlife Habitat Iowa Department of Natural Resources and USDA-NRCS, in partnership with Pheasants Forever, presents a guide for private landowners to attract wildlife to their property. http://www.state.ia.us/government/dnr/organiza/fwb/wildlife/pages/plhabitatguide.htm Financial Aid to Private Landowners in Minnesota Cost-share, loan, grant, easement/land retirement, and land donation programs to acquire, manage, conserve, and protect natural resources in Minnesota are described at http://www.extension.umn.edu/distribution/naturalresources/DD5946.html Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation The mission of this member-supported organization is to assist landowners in protecting natural lands (prairies, woodlands, wetlands, priority watershed). Projects are ongoing in nearly every county in Iowa. The website also provides links to Ecology College articles concerning land management: http://www.inhf.org/whatwedo.htm Environmental Law Summary for Private Landowners The North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation publishes online summaries about private land use managment, environmental policies, and conservation incentives: http://www.cec.org/pubs_info_resources/law_treat_agree/summary_enviro_law/publication/us15.cfm?varlan=english Beyond the Suburbs: A Landowner's Guide to Conservation Management The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) published a comprehensive guide in 2001 that lays out all the issues relating to good conservation practices for of all kinds of privately-held lands. An excellent resource guide in PDF form: http://thoreau.dnr.state.mn.us/forestry/beyond_suburbs.pdf Sustainable Lawn Care The University of Minnesota's Sustainable Urban Landscape Information Series (SULIS) offers a comprehensive Sustainable Lawn Care Information Series. While the 2002 Minnesota Legislature passed a phosphorus-free lawn fertilizer bill effective January 2004 in the seven-county Twin Cities metro area, the site does not yet reflect that new information.