WNC land trusts surpass conservation goal
In the past five years, the 10 land trusts of Western North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Forever coalition have collectively completed 280 new conservation projects, protecting more than 31,000 acres and surpassing their 30,000-acre, five-year goal.
“Land trusts protect land and water for present and future generations, forever,” said Jess Laggis, director of the Blue Ridge Forever collaboration. “When a land trust protects property near a stream or river, the effects trickle downstream to people in the form of clean water from the faucet.”
An inch of rainfall equates to about one gallon of water per square foot of land area, meaning the acres protected over the past five years protect about 53 billion gallons of clean water each year.
Included in Blue Ridge Forever’s 10-organization roster are the Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, Mainspring Conservation Trust (formerly known as Land Trust for the Little Tennessee), Highlands-Cashiers Land Trust, the Carolina Mountain Land Conservancy, Conservation Trust for North Carolina and the Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina. The group formed in 2005 to collaborate on their goal so safeguard land and water resources in the Southern Blue Ridge.
