The Kentucky Natural Lands Trust (KNLT) is a nationally accredited nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that uses a science-driven and community-minded approach to protect Kentucky’s wildlands. Since 1995, KNLT has protected more than 64,000 acres of wildlands across Kentucky and within Central Appalachia. Their conservation work spans from the Appalachian Mountains through the rolling forest and grasslands of central Kentucky to the meandering western sloughs of the western part of the state.
KNLT focuses on developing partnerships with individuals, nonprofits, government agencies and businesses to safeguard lands important for protecting biodiverse and climate-resilient landscapes in ways that benefit local, regional and global communities.
Large, ecologically healthy, and connected landscapes are essential to protecting biodiversity and maintaining ecosystem resilience, which, in turn, safeguards communities. KNLT focuses on increasing and restoring landscape connectivity and fostering collaboration in ways that transcend arbitrary political boundaries and ideologies.
Atira Conservation is proud to have partnered with KNLT on several important land conservation transactions including:
- Hurricane Gap Preserve: Karen Wilder Addition: This 402-acre acquisition features some of the most biodiverse temperate forests on the planet. Hurricane Gap Preserve protects forested habitat at the headwaters of the North Fork of the Kentucky River. Expanding Hurricane Gap Preserve added to the connectivity of conservation lands along Pine Mountain, quilting together more than 6,000 acres of contiguous protected wildlands in Letcher and Harlan counties.
- Warbler Ridge Preserve — Cam & Otta Cornett Farm Addition: This land conservation initiative was pursued in part due to the protection benefits of vital forest lands that are known habitat for federally endangered northern long-eared bats and Indiana bats. KNLT in collaboration with Atira Conservation and the Imperiled Bat Conservation Fund (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Kentucky Field Office), purchased this 203-acre property known as the Cam & Otta Cornett Farm Addition to join the Warbler Ridge Preserve. This addition increased the size of the Warbler Ridge Preserve to 3,527 acres.
- Limestone Gap Preserve — Reese-Roan Tracts: The Pine Mountain Wildlands Corridor is an ecologically significant and climate-resilient landscape within Central Appalachia. Pine Mountain is home to thousands of plant and animal species, more than 200 of which are considered rare or endangered. The streams and rivers of this region are the most biodiverse temperate freshwater ecosystem in the world and are also part of the Mississippi River Watershed, the fourth largest watershed in the world. With support from Atira Conservation in December 2024, KNLT acquired an additional 204 acres on the north face of Pine Mountain.
