North Central Conservancy Trust Receives National Accreditation

Tuesday, February 27th, 2024 -- 1:00 PM

North Central Conservancy Trust (NCCT) began 30 years ago when conservation-minded central Wisconsinites from Wausau and Stevens Point worked together to form a land trust: a community-based, nonprofit organization dedicated to conserving land.

Now, after years of preparation, NCCT announced it has achieved national recognition joining a network of over 450 accredited land trusts across the nation and 16 in Wisconsin that have demonstrated their commitment to professional excellence and to maintaining the public’s trust in their work.

This is NCCT’s first attempt at becoming accredited, though it has been a goal for the organization for a long time. Accredited land trusts steward almost 20 million acres of land across the United States equivalent to the size of more than half of the state of Wisconsin.

NCCT’s mission is to conserve the natural heritage of Central Wisconsin through the protection of land. NCCT works with landowners to develop conservation easements that protect and preserve the ecological values of their properties.

The organization also owns several preserves that are open to the public, including the 160-acre Mumford Preserve in Marathon County. NCCT operates in an eight-county service area that includes Lincoln, Taylor, Clark, Marathon, Wood, Portage, Adams, and Waushara Counties, and is based in Stevens Point.

With the completion of their most recent project in 2023, the organization now holds 60 conservation easements and has surpassed 5,000 total acres of land protected, including more than 10 miles of shoreline on central Wisconsin waterbodies.

NCCT is one of 1,363 land trusts across the United States and more than 40 in Wisconsin, according to the Land Trust Alliance’s most recent National Land Trust Census. Of those, 16 are nationally accredited.

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