Oaks in Snow. Photo by Ralph Preston, courtesy of Mainspring Conservation Trust
Some of Appalachia’s most special places are protected through land trusts. These nonprofit organizations work with private landowners and other organizations to protect places of significant agricultural, environmental, historic and recreational value. Land trusts use a variety of mechanisms to protect land. Conservation easements allow the owners to retain ownership and protect the land’s important natural assets by limiting development. In other cases, a land trust will purchase property and then sell or donate it to a park, forest or other entity that will protect the land for future generations. Property owners can also work with land trusts to develop conservation plans for land and waterways. The eight regional land trusts in western North Carolina have protected thousands of acres of our region’s beautiful mountains and rivers.
Digital Heritage Moments are produced at Western Carolina University in Cullowhee. To learn more, see digitalheritage.org. You may also hear Digital Heritage Moments each weekday on radio stations WKSF-FM, WWCU-FM, WMXF-AM, WPEKAM and WWNC-AM.
