President's Letter: The Need for Our Water, Our Land

Understanding the need for Triangle Land Conservancy to move quickly in our work to conserve important open spaces, TLC’s Board of Directors approved a plan for the most ambitious fundraising campaign in TLC’s history.

With a goal of $5.5 million, the Our Water, Our Land Campaign seeks to build TLC’s Land Opportunity Fund and to ensure we will be able to care for our conservation lands in perpetuity. Through this campaign, TLC will secure the resources necessary to increase the pace of conservation and to strike a balance between our built and green environments.

We have all witnessed the rapid growth of the past two decades. While it has brought economic prosperity to our region, it has contributed to the loss of our forests and the degradation of our streams and rivers. The Triangle will continue to grow with projections indicating that as many as three million people could live here by 2030. The recent drought has crippled already-strained water supplies, and a 2007 report indicated that our farmlands could disappear altogether in the next 20 years.

As we consider the future, I believe that TLC must continue to be innovative in our approach to conservation, bringing traditional and non-traditional partners to the table, working with local communities to understand their needs, and finding solutions that benefit the entire region.

The Our Water, Our Land Campaign is a call to action to TLC’s members, partners, friends and all who care about the health of our community. Together, we will safeguard our water supplies, create additional opportunities for outdoor recreation and keep families on their farms. We will conserve habitat for wildlife and restore native plants, and we will create a vibrant natural legacy for future generations.