Private land conservation surges in U.S., with the help of nonprofit trusts

So here’s a good-news story about American stewardship of undeveloped land: Over the past five years, 9 million acres have been protected from development — a pace that averages about 5,000 acres per day — by private landowners assisted by nonprofit land trusts.The achievement brings the nationwide acreage protected with land-trust assistance to an overall total of 56 million acres, which is “double the size of all the land in national parks across the lower 48 states.”