OUR FIRST PILLAR OF CONSERVATION
LAND & WATER
DLC focuses on protecting lands with high conservation values including rich forests, waterways, open space, farmland and connectivity with other natural areas. To preserve land, we use conservation easements which are voluntary, legal agreements that permanently limit development and uses of the land to protect conservation values. Once conserved with an easement, DLC stewards, monitors and defends these lands in perpetuity.
DLC has protected more than 700 acres in our region, stewards over 800 acres and is working to conserve another 1,000 acres. Despite rapid land consumption and development, DLC has more conservation projects in the pipeline than ever before in our 25-year history. Raising more capital is critical to ensure we can execute these opportunities and steward the land long-term.
THE WHAT
Our core mission is to permanently protect local lands through conservation and effective stewardship. Working with landowners who share similar goals, we’re able to protect land with high conservation values against future development while maximizing that land’s value to the ecosystem.
THE WHY
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of natural lands when it comes to our health, quality of life, and the ecosystems that support us all. The high rate of land development jeopardizes the open spaces and natural landscapes critical to making our community healthy, attractive, and livable.
MONITORING CONSERVED LAND
When a landowner grants a conservation easement, Davidson Lands Conservancy agrees to assume a perpetual responsibility to make sure the property’s conservation values are preserved and to periodically assess any risks to those values. Every year, our volunteers walk the properties, often with the landowners, to complete a written monitoring report and detail the status of the unique characteristics that made the land originally conservable. Monitoring allows us to observe and document changes in each property’s condition, prevent violations from occurring, discover existing violations, maintain a relationship with the landowner through regular contact, remind the landowner of the easement’s provisions, find areas, where we can offer land management technical assistance, and establish records in case legal action, is ever necessary.
Contact us for more information about conserving and monitoring land.
CONSERVE LAND
Your land can make a big difference. And you might be surprised at how simple it is to ensure that your property is part of the conservation solution in Davidson.
VOLUNTEER
Whatever your passion, there’s a place for you at DLC. From sharing your expertise with visitors to planting trees with your family, volunteers are the heart and soul of our mission.