Since the mid-20th century, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust and Rural Land Foundation have played important roles in helping Lincoln manage development to protect the town’s legacy of open space, agriculture, and recreation.

Founded in 1957, the Lincoln Land Conservation Trust (LLCT) was formed to preserve the rural character of Lincoln through land management, trail maintenance, and education and outreach It was the first single town-based private land trust in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

In 1965 the Rural Land Foundation (RLF) was created to focus on real estate development – not in the traditional sense of buy and sell, but in strategic land conservation, management, and development.

The two organizations merged in 2011 with the RLF focused on acquisitions and the LLCT on land management, stewardship, education, and outreach. Together they have permanently preserve more than 40 percent of Lincoln’s open space, protecting important watershed areas and creating valuable recreational areas; raised more than $35 million for conservation protection through public and private fundraising and limited development ventures; established nearly 75 conservation restrictions (CRs), enabling the protection of hundreds of acres of private lands; helped secure and maintain more than 80 miles of interconnected trails throughout Lincoln; monitored more than 100 conservation restrictions annually to ensure long term protection of the land; managed more than 500 acres of protected fields, forests and wetlands and sponsored more than 300 educational programs, connecting the community to Lincoln’s natural resources and conservation legacy.