In 1985 the Wolf River Conservancy was formed as a non-profit local land trust in order to be able to protect lands along the Wolf River as a public natural resource.

A land trust is a nonprofit organization that, as all or part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisition, or by its stewardship of such land or easements. Land trusts work with landowners and the community to conserve land by accepting donations of land, purchasing land, negotiating private, voluntary conservation agreements on land, and stewarding conserved land through the generations to come.

Today, there are 1,700 land trusts that have more than 100,000 volunteers and 2 million members. So far, land trusts have conserved 37 million acres of land in America - an area roughly the size of all the New England states combined.

Most land trusts are community-based and deeply connected to local needs, so they are well-equipped to identify land that offers critical natural habitat as well as land offering recreational, agricultural and other conservation value.

The WRC is a member of the Land Trust Alliance and is currently working toward accreditation.