As farms and ranches across America are presented with an unprecedented series of challenges and opportunities, the Partnership of Rangeland Trust (PORT), a nine-member alliance of land trusts in the West and Midwest with a focus to conserve working lands, is celebrating 20 years of impact, together.

For the past two decades, agriculture has faced an increasingly uncertain future. Industrialization and urbanization have posed a threat to the nations’ vast and unique private farmlands, rangelands, and grasslands. Since 2004, PORT members, each with an affiliation to their state’s livestock trade association, have banded together to help keep working lands in working hands.

Collectively, PORT member organizations, have helped more than 2,000 families voluntarily conserve more than three million acres of vibrant working lands across 12 states. This regional alliance originally included six land trusts in 2004, including: California Rangeland Trust, Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust, Wyoming Stock Growers Land Trust, Montana Land Reliance, Kansas Livestock Association, Ranchland Trust (now called the Ranchland Trust of Kansas) and the Oregon Rangeland Trust (now expanded to the Northwest Rangeland Trust, serving Oregon, Washington and Idaho). Subsequent additions have included Nebraska Land Trust, South Dakota Agricultural Land Trust and Texas Agricultural Land Trust (which also serves Oklahoma). The alliance’s mission is to advocate for the conservation of working lands and western heritage for the benefit and well-being of future generations.

For more information about PORT, please visit: rangelandtrusts.org