Archived Outdoors
Grants awarded for farmland preservation
Farmland in several Western North Carolina counties will now be protected thanks to funding from the Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund, which recently awarded more than $4.6 million statewide to obtain easements on 2,590 acres.
- The Haywood Soil and Water Conser-vation District landed $270,000 for an easement on a 34-acre farm and $202,000 to preserve 49 acres of a beef cattle farm.
- A $27,500 award to the N.C. Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services will cover transaction costs on a 15-acre perpetual conservation easement that was donated in Jackson County.
- The Southwestern N.C. Resource Conservation and Development Council will use a $128,500 award for a perpetual conservation easement on a 20-acre farm in Haywood County.
- Mainspring Conservation Trust received $636,000 to purchase a perpetual conservation easement on 192 acres of cropland in Cherokee County and $114,000 to preserve a 31-acre farm, also in Cherokee County.