| Alamance County
- State Funding for Conservation Projects in Alamance County (aka "Green Book" data)
- Examples of conservation projects in Alamance County funded with state trust fund money:
- Clean Water, History and Nature on the Haw Rive
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Substantial headway was made on implementing a plan to improve water quality and protect important historic sites, forests and farms on the Haw River when the Clean Water Management Trust Fund and the Tobacco Trust Fund Commission gave three grants totaling $502,000 to help protect a 370-acre tobacco, cattle and strawberry farm and to create local parks at Glencoe Mill and at Carolina Mill, two important historic sites on the river. When open, these two parks will also serve as important links in the statewide Mountains-to-Sea Trail.
- In 1995, a farm in the heart of the Sutphin Mill farming community on the Chatham-Alamance County line went on the market.
 Land prices had been rising fast enough in this community located halfway between the Triad and the Triangle that no farmer could afford to buy it. Other farmers were very concerned about the effect a housing development might have on their own ability to farm. They knew they needed a group of farms together to keep other associated businesses, such as feed and tractor stores, profitable. They also worried that new neighbors might complain about farm practices like pesticide use and slow moving machinery on the roads. They turned to the Piedmont Land Conservancy and American Farmland Trust to help them find a solution. By piecing together funding from a variety of sources, the Piedmont Land Conservancy was able to purchase the farm at fair market value, place permanent restrictions within the deed on any future non-agricultural development on the farm, and then resell it at its farm value to a farmer. This project was so successful that four other Sutphin Mill farmers have since entered into similar agreements, and more than 500 acres of farmland have now been permanently protected. Learn more about Sutphin Mill on the PLC website.
- Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund
North Carolina has lost more farms than any other state, tying for first place with Florida and Tenneessee. We now surpass New Jersey as the 10th most populous state. In the face of this rapid change, farmers across North Carolina are desperately seeking ways to save their farms.
The tremendous interest in farmland preservation was demonstrated in 2006 when the NC Agricultural Development and Farmland Trust Fund put out a call for applications for small grants from its $50,000 state appropriation, the first funding the Trust Fund had received since 2003.
The Trust Fund received 23 grant applications requesting a total of $576,000 from across the state, which would have leveraged more than $9 million in projects. Given the limited dollars available, only five grants could be made, but those grants leveraged another $3.4 million in project value through donated easements and other matching funds.
Funding in Alamance County went to develop a county farmland protection plan.
This trust fund’s work with limited dollars demonstrates the value of the State’s investment in our farms and forests. It is inspiring to imagine what the fund will do when it is adequately financed.
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