Federal land programs, such as the Conservation Reserve, provide land amenities with public goods attributes. Private land trusts supply related amenities through their holdings of land and conservation easements. We analyze, in a unique county-level panel, the effects of the federal programs on...

We examine the effects of U.S. federal land programs on private conservation using county-level panel regressions. Private conservation data measure acres held by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) and by participants in Land Trust Alliance (LTA) censuses. Government data measure federal landholdings...

We highlight the extraordinary growth in private conservation via land trusts and conservation easements and describe the problems arising from the interplay of public finance and private decisions. We offer a framework for understanding the popularity of easements and land trusts and for...