How would I go about buying land for conservation?

Tijuana Tatsak: You definitely want to get into contact with an organization with not only the experience and lobbying power to buy large tracts of land (potentially larger than any individual or small group can buy), but one with the expertise to evaluate land for it's present and future habitat potential, suitability for threatened and endangered species, migration staging ability, etc. They will also take care of any necessary permits (most already have them). I would suggest The Nature Conservancy, Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, or the National Wild Turkey Federation (they manage for more than just turkeys).Other options include contacting an environmental consultant, who may be better able to direct you to local areas. I know that many private and national wildlife refuges won't have a problem receiving land adjacent to their properties, nor does the Forest Service, although they can be a little more complicated. The natural resource agencies in your state may also! have ideas and conservation initiatives, usually found somewhere on their websites.Although likely legally complicated, yet another option is to donate land to a local university under the condition that it never be developed and be used for field research purposes. Many universities don't have access to field resources and are forced to teach things like Ecology and Conservation Biology in a lab only....Show more

Clinton Quant: You buy it the way you buy anything else. Get the best deal you can on the best property you can. Then you post it and, preferably, fence it.You will probably want to hire a lawyer to form a non-profit corporation to run the preserve. If you don't have a particular spot selected, you might want to hire an environmental consulting firm to evaluate the properties available. One advantage of being a non-profit conservation organization is that people can get tax breaks by giving land to you or selling it to you at below cost. Often, they bought ! the land for development and later found out that development ! is impossible. This leaves them with land they can't use but still have to pay taxes on. It is cheaper to give it away....Show more

Randa Hessell: i have an island in maine with a bird sanctuary on it, i needed no special permits

Barton Sease: wow! that's a really ambitious project you've got there but i doubt you'll even get the permits to buy really large piece of land as an individual.