All across North America, skyrocketing agricultural production costs, extreme climate conditions, and the rising value of rural open space needed for suburban expansion are putting strong pressures on private land owners to sell their lands in order to avoid financial troubles. Many such land owners are considering liquidation of traditional agricultural operations that have been owned by the same family for generations.

At the same time, important wildlife species are facing similar problems in their struggles for survival. As critical habitat in key wildlife linkages rapidly disappears in the face of a booming population, some species are threatened with disappearing altogether. As a result, many private land owners wish to protect existing wildlife habitat on their properties.

These challenges to the continuation of traditional uses of land and preservation of wildlife habitat can be met today through several creative solutions. Private owners wishing to maintain ownership and traditional uses of their lands while also protecting its value as wildlife habitat have a surprising number of income-producing opportunities available to them. In many cases, these opportunities represent the difference between continued operation and liquidation of private land. In the same way, such opportunities can mean the difference between survival and loss of native wildlife.

Private land owners have many resources available to assist them in accommodating both healthy wildlife habitat and continuing personal income through conservation of their properties. Positive options for land owners searching for economically viable tools to restore and/or protect private lands for both traditional uses and for wildlife habitat exist through federal, state and local agencies, and through private land trusts and other land protection resources.

To find more information on private land protection opportunitites, visit www.redlodgeclearinghouse.org.