TLC Executive Director's Message

Big Opportunity for Triangle Conservation

November 2005

Triangle Land Conservancy—your local land trust—and other conservation groups across North Carolina have spent a good portion of 2005 advocating for our state senators and representatives to increase conservation funding. I am very happy to report that our efforts paid off. The General Assembly passed a budget in August that provided additional funding to the state conservation trust funds upon which TLC relies.

For the first time since its inception in 1996, the NC Clean Water Management Trust Fund was fully funded at $100 million for this and next state fiscal years—an increase of about 50 percent over current funding. The Clean Water Management Trust Fund makes grants to local governments, state agencies and conservation groups like TLC to help finance projects that specifically address water pollution problems. TLC conservation projects such as the Johnston Mill Nature Preserve (Orange County), Endor Iron Furnace (Lee County), and La Grange Riparian Reserve (Chatham County) were acquired in part with funds from the Clean Water Management Trust Fund.

In addition, the NC General Assembly voted in its budget to fully fund the Natural Heritage Trust Fund and the Parks & Recreation Trust Fund. Both have been instrumental in protecting some of the Triangle’s most important natural areas.

All of this comes at an opportune time. Many of you probably read the news in August that International Paper plans to sell more than 7 million acres of forests across the country—including 638,000 acres in North Carolina. This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance for North Carolina, local governments and conservation groups to work collaboratively to ensure that these forests will remain that way for generations to come.

What can you do to help us succeed? First, contact your state senators and representatives to thank them for passing a budget that puts a priority on conservation (go to www.ncleg.net to find e-mail and postal addresses). Second, increase your support of TLC. Your gift to TLC will enable us to leverage money from these state conservation trust funds to protect more of the Triangle’s important open space, but we must increase our pace of conservation before the opportunity passes us by.

Kevin Brice, TLC Executive Director

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.