Kachemak Heritage Land Trust (KHLT) is a non-profit organization established in 1989 to preserve, for public benefit, land with significant natural, recreational, or cultural values by working with willing landowners on Alaska's Kenai Peninsula.

Across America, 37 million acres have been conserved by local, state, and national land trusts. This is an area 16 1/2 times the size of Yellowstone National Park. There are now over 1,700 land trusts - local and regional organizations that are saving dwindling open space through cooperative voluntary action. Property owners have worked with land trusts to protect ranches, ocean shores, wetlands, scenic views, farms, wildlife habitat, river corridors, historic sites, trails - properties of every size and type that have special conservation value.

Landowners choose from a variety of protection tools. The property may stay in private ownership and use, or may be transferred to the land trust. In every case, the way in which the property is protected depends on the wishes of the landowner and the natural values of the property.

Kachemak Heritage Land Trust was established as Alaska's first land trust. Since its inception, KHLT has helped to preserve many acres of wildlife habitat, recreational corridors, historic and cultural sites, and urban natural areas on the Kenai Peninsula through donations of land and conservation easements.

Yule Kilcher's conservation easement ensures that his 613-acre homestead will not

 be subdivided.  His children are developing small home sites and will continue

the agricultural and ranching activities that Yule began in the 1950s.

Toby Tyler's conservation easement ensures that his 20-acre property will forever be preserved for its conservation values including valuable wildlife habitat, and serves as an important link in the corridor between the moose summer range and the Beluga wetlands wintering grounds.

2006-2010 Newsletters

Kenai Peninsula Landscape

Connectivity Initiative

KHLT's "Connect the Dots" initiative is designed to maintain landscape connectivity on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula by permanently preserving land adjacent to existing conservation land.

As we consider the properties identified in our comprehensive 2-year resource inventory as the most significant, many of them are adjacent to protected land and provide important movement corridors for wildlife.  These are some of the properties that we are targeting first for protection, as conservation science reveals that landscapes must remain connected to sustain habitat integrity.  If habitat is fragmented into “islands”, the ecological functions of an area may be compromised.

Funding for this extended initiative has been driven by generous match grants from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Coastal Program in 2008, 2009, and 2010.

Thank you to all of the many individual donors who contributed to our 2008 and 2009 annual appeals, helping us to meet our grant matches for this important project!

Marie McCarty, Executive Director

Project Funders

The work of Kachemak Heritage Land Trust would not be possible without the support of organizational funders who share our conservation ethic and vision. Kachemak Heritage Land Trust has been awarded grants for various purposes from numerous generous foundations, as well as federal and state agencies and corporate funders.

Thank you to our current and recent funders:

Alaska Conservation Fund

Alaska State Historic Preservation Office

American Seafoods Company

City of Homer, through the Homer Foundation

ConocoPhillips

Ducks Unlimited

Land Trust Alliance

National Trust for Historic Preservation

The Community Foundation Serving Boulder County

The Homer Foundation

The Webb Family Fund of the Pikes Peak Community   Foundation

True North Foundation

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Coastal Program

Vanguard Charitable Endowment Program

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