The National Conservation Easement Database (NCED) is the first national database of conservation easement information, compiling records from land trusts and public agencies throughout the United States. This public-private partnership brings together national conservation groups, local and regional land trusts, and local, state and federal agencies around a common objective. This effort helps agencies, land trusts, and other organizations plan more strategically, identify opportunities for collaboration, advance public accountability, and raise the profile of what’s happening on-the-ground in the name of conservation.
For an introductory tour of the NCED and its benefits check out the story map.
Who?
The NCED is an initiative of the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities. The current NCED team includes Ducks Unlimited and The Trust for Public Land. The NCED team collaborates on data acquisition and standards with the USGS Science Analytics and Synthesis’s Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US). The NCED team also collaborates with agencies and organizations nationwide, including The Nature Conservancy and Land Trust Alliance.
Methods
Currently, The Trust for Public Land is responsible for the public easement data collection and Ducks Unlimited is responsible for the private easement data collection. We collect basic information about each easement, including the location and extent. For special instances in which a land trust requests concealing the exact location of an easement, we hide the location on the map and withhold the location from downloads. You can download a tabular dataset of all easements, spatial data for unrestricted easements, or a list of all attributes we collect on our downloads page.
Support
NCED is financially supported by grants from public and private sources. A list of current and past financial supporters can be found below. These supporters enable the NCED team to continue to expand and improve the quality of the database. If you are interested in supporting NCED, please contact Peter Stangel at the U.S Endowment for Forestry and Communities (peter@usendowment.org , 864-233-7646).
CURRENT FUNDERS
(Last Updated April 9, 2021)
United States Geological Survey (GAP Analysis Project)
PAST FUNDERS
U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities $1,000,000
USDA Forest Service $300,000
Knobloch Family Foundation $265,000
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service $200,000
Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation $85,000
Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Family Foundation $80,000
United States Geological Survey (Gap Program) $50,000
Graham Foundation $40,000
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives
Peter and Carmen Lucia Buck Foundation
U.S. Department of Defense
Michigan Heart of the Lakes