TLC President's Message

Our Water, Our Land:
Our Opportunity

May 2008

It’s official. Triangle Land Conservancy—as part of our 25th anniversary celebration on February 29—went public with an initiative to raise $5.5 million. Called the Campaign for Our Water, Our Land, TLC’s board of directors launched the public phase of the campaign with very good news: we’ve already raised $3.5 million!

The campaign seeks to raise funds to accomplish two very important objectives. First, TLC wants to create a $4 million revolving fund to enable us to move more quickly to protect important conservation land. We will call it the Land Opportunity Fund.

Four million dollars doesn’t sound like much money? It isn’t if TLC had to foot the entire bill to purchase land, but thankfully we do not.

Take the 760-acre Justice Tract on the Deep River as an example. In 2003 TLC purchased this beautiful hardwood forest with a $100,000 down payment and a promise to pay the remaining $3 million purchase price in installments over three years (the Justice family initially asked for $4 million, but TLC negotiated a lower bargain price).

TLC leveraged its $100,000 at a rate of 40-to-1 to quickly secure a very important conservation land.

After much hard work, TLC convinced the NC Division of State Parks to purchase the Justice Lands as the beginning of a new state park on the Deep River. In the deal, the state covered the payments on the property and reimbursed TLC for its original $100,000 down payment! The coda to the story is that last year the state legislature adopted the Deep River State Trail as the newest state park.

This is what the Our Water, Our Land Campaign will enable TLC to do—act quickly, leverage our money and find ways to reimburse the land opportunity fund. Given our track record, I believe that TLC could acquire conservation land valued at more than $30 million with a $4 million land opportunity fund.

The campaign’s second objective is to provide TLC with the resources to take better care of the land we acquire. We would use $1 million to bolster our stewardship endowment and to conduct stewardship projects like expanding the trails at TLC’s White Pines and Johnston Mill nature preserves, planting hardwood trees at LaGrange Riparian Reserve and restoring native grasses at Temple Flat Rock.

For those keeping track, the remaining $500,000 would fund all of the campaign’s administrative expenses.

Please consider joining those who have already given more than $3.5 million to the Our Water, Our Land Campaign and help TLC to surpass our goal. Together we can increase the pace of conservation.

Kevin Brice, President and CEO, Triangle Land Conservancy

Learn more about Our Water, Our Land

TLC President's Message Archive

February 2008   Time to celebrate
November 2007   Deep River deservedly recognized
August 2007   Land: They're not making any more of it
May 2007   TLC's landscapes are works of art
November 2006   TLC collaborates for conservation successes
August 2006   Members drive TLC's success
May 2006   Planting trees and promoting peace
November 2005   Big opportunity for Triangle conservation
July 2005   Passing the torch

Copyright © 2006-2008, Triangle Land Conservancy Last updated on 05/08/2008.