Yolo Land Trust

A nonprofit organization
Fundraise

0% complete

$15,000 Goal

Yolo County’s farmland is more than open space, it’s the soil that grows our food, the water that sustains our crops, and the working landscapes that define who we are.

For decades, Yolo Land Trust has partnered with more than 60 farmers to protect over 13,000 acres of farmland from being lost. Because of this work, those acres will continue to grow food, support wildlife, and provide jobs for generations to come. 

But none of it happens without people like you. You know what’s at stake.

The fresh produce on your table. The farmworkers and family farmers whose livelihoods depend on healthy land. The hawks that circle above orchards. The children who visit pumpkin patches each fall. The cyclists who pause to take in golden fields at sunset. These aren’t just moments, they’re part of the character and heart of Yolo County.

Once farmland is paved over, it never comes back. Once soil is lost, so is the opportunity to grow food and sustain a thriving agricultural economy. The decisions we make today will shape this community for centuries.

With your support, we can keep farms in farming. We can protect the soil, water, wildlife habitat, and local food that nourish us all. We can ensure that Yolo County remains a place defined by working lands, not by endless pavement.

Your gift is an investment in the future of this farms, farmland, this community, and the generations who will call it home.

Together, we can keep Yolo County rooted in agriculture, now and forever.

Giving Activity

Mission

Yolo Land Trust has one simple & vital mission: to conserve farmland in Yolo County.

Permanent farmland conservation protects air, water, and soil, keeps our rural heritage alive, maintains open space for wildlife, fosters healthy communities, generates good jobs, and ensures food will be grown to nourish the world.

YLT works with farmers to preserve productive farmland and ensure that public policies will continue to protect the local farmland we all love.

We help those interested in preserving their property’s resources through our most common tool: a conservation easement. Conservation easements are voluntary legal agreements that restrict the use of the land to farming, ranching or habitat protection in perpertuity.

Needs

Donations are the foundation that makes farmland conservation possible.

While grants and public funding often support specific projects, it is flexible, unrestricted support that allows Yolo Land Trust to act quickly when opportunities arise. These funds enable us to complete the detailed due diligence required for agricultural conservation easements—appraisals, legal review, landowner coordination, baseline documentation, and long-term stewardship planning. Without this essential groundwork, farmland cannot be permanently conserved.

But the need goes beyond individual projects.

Unrestricted support sustains the core of our work—keeping skilled staff in place, maintaining the technology and mapping tools required for monitoring, and ensuring we remain strong and responsive in times of uncertainty. It allows us to build relationships with landowners, educate the community about the importance of protecting farmland, and share the stories that inspire others to care about this land.

It also supports long-term stewardship—annual monitoring, compliance reporting, and the ongoing care required to ensure conserved farms remain in agriculture for generations.

Simply put, unrestricted gifts give us the stability and flexibility to protect more farmland across Yolo County.

With your support, we can move projects forward, respond to emerging challenges, and continue safeguarding the soil, water, wildlife habitat, and local food system that define our community.

Your unrestricted gift isn’t just support—it’s momentum.

Equity Statement

The Yolo Land Trust values diversity and strives to create a welcoming community in which all individuals are respected and included. We support respectful and meaningful inquiry across actual or perceived differences. These differences could include age, appearance, ethnicity, gender, language, political ideology, race, religion/spirituality, sex, socio-economic status, and other personal identities and experiences.

We live and work in an increasingly interconnected world. The ability to include, communicate, cooperate, and collaborate with diverse individuals is critical to the success of the Trust. To that end, we engage in a dialogue to understand our common values, our differences, and how we can work together with a long view in protecting the rural and agricultural resources of our community. As an organization, this involves being transparent, non-political and non-governmental.

Organization Data

Summary

Organization name

Yolo Land Trust

other names

The Yolo Land Trust, YLT

Year Established

1988

Tax id (EIN)

68-0160105

Guidestar

Mission Category

Food, Agriculture & Nutrition

Operating Budget

$250,001-$500,000

Organization Need

Funding: Unrestricted, Funding: Program, Technology, Volunteers, In-Kind Donations

Local Counties Served

Yolo

Equity Statement

Equity Statement

Address

221 West Court Street Suite 7
Woodland, CA 95695

Other

PO Box 1196
Woodland, CA 95776

Service areas

Yolo, CA, US

Woodland, CA, US

Davis, CA, US

Winters, CA, US, 95694

West Sacramento, CA, US

Phone

530-662-1110

Email

jcurrey@theyololandtrust.org

Website

http://theyololandtrust.org

Social Media