[8] Properties include historic mansions, estates, and gardens; woodland preserves; waterfalls; mountain peaks; wetlands and riverways; coastal bluffs, beaches, and barrier islands; farmland and CSA projects; and archaeological sites.

[10] In June 2006, The Trustees earned gold-level recognition from the United States Green Building Council for its Doyle Conservation Center in Leominster.

Financial support for the organization comes from membership dues, annual contributions, property admission fees, special events, grants, and endowments.

[11] The Trustees of Reservations was proposed in 1890 when the New England periodical Garden and Forest published a letter by landscape architect Charles Eliot (protégé of Frederick Law Olmsted) entitled "The Waverly Oaks.

"[2] Eliot's letter proposed the immediate preservation of "special bits of scenery" still remaining "within ten miles (16 km) of the State House which possess uncommon beauty and more than usual refreshing power."

This conference led to a 1929 report by the Governor's Committee on Needs and Uses of Open Spaces that emphasized the need to protect the state's rural character and countryside and the importance of identifying and describing the qualities and characteristics of specific sites that should be preserved.

The building includes "photovoltaic panels, high-efficiency lighting and controls, a displacement ventilation system, high performance windows, a high performance building envelope, geothermal wells and carbon dioxide monitoring systems;" it incorporates green materials such as desks made of sunflower seeds, bamboo and cork flooring, and recycled fiber carpet and paneling.

[28] It offered workshops, conferences, and networking for land conservationists, urban park advocates, historic preservationists, watershed associations, state agencies, and municipal commissions.

[29] Copicut Woods, Slocum's River Reserve, the Tully Trail, and Appleton Farms represent collaborative efforts of The Trustees, government agencies, local communities, and private groups to create a bioreserve, a mixed use open space preserve, a 22-mile (35 km) recreation trail, and a mixed use and community supported agriculture preserve, respectively.

Current conservation projects include cooperative efforts on the Mount Tom Range and interpretive development of the birthplace of suffragist Lucy Stone in West Brookfield.