Land conservation pays off

A recent study quantified the benefits of public land acquisition:

In today's dollars, the 289,000 acres of land acquired by these trust funds from 1998 to 2010 is worth $825 million. But that same land from 1998 to the year 2020 will generate $3.67 billion in natural goods and services, according to the study.

You can expect to see some sort of legislation by NC Republicans to derail this process in the near future. Government purchasing land as a set-aside is anathema to Free Market fundies who just can't comprehend the idea of a "public good", or that developers just might work against that good.

Peter Davis, a Brunswick County landowner, said the Land Trust helped his family divide 145 acres inherited from his mother. Each of the three family groups got about 14 acres. Then the Trust created a 300-foot buffer zone along the Cape Fear River. This allows runoff to be filtered by the soil before it reaches the river. It also means a housing development or golf course can't be built here.

"Finally the river's getting cleaned. To me, there's value also because people on the river, they're going to look and it's not going to look like the inland waterway and you see nothing but houses," he said. "When I go down there and walk with my dog and my children and my two little grandchildren . . . I just love it."