What is a land conservancy? A land conservancy, or land trust, is a non-profit, tax- exempt organization that preserves significant lands primarily by lasting conservation agreements with landowners or acquisition through purchase or gift. Land trusts focus on the land and water resources of greatest importance to local communities. They are run by small, professional staffs and volunteer boards of directors drawn from the communities. Land trusts help ordinary people do extraordinary things. |
| Find out more about how a Land Trust Works. |
Blue Ridge Forever… protecting an American Treasure
Blue Ridge Forever is a collective campaign led by 13 land conservation organizations to engage the public and raise financial resources to safeguard land and water in the Southern Blue Ridge for present and future generations.
Our 13 partnering land conservancies in Western North Carolina are:
• Developing a collective vision to achieve protection on a region-wide landscape scale that respects natural ecosystems.
• Gaining from each other's knowledge and experience - keeping the local connections of smaller land trusts, yet gaining national attention to our collective efforts.
• Pooling our resources to protect shared priority areas, particularly watersheds, river corridors, farms and lands adjacent to already preserved areas.
Blue Ridge Forever has a five-year goal to protect 50,000 acres in Western North
Carolina.Our region-wide Conservation Vision guides us in connecting protected lands on a landscape scale with attention to places containing important wildlife habitat, water quality, cultural and economic significance, and scenic value.
To achieve our goals, we will need to raise substantial amounts of private capital to leverage public funds, and donated land values. One dollar may leverage as much as eleven additional dollars for land protection.
Find out more about the American Treasure we are protecting.
Find out how you can Get Involved.