Glad you provided this link. You can see a good shot of Emily's garden, where there is open house this Sat., April 12, with $5 suggestion donation to PLC.

If you don't live in the area covered by the Piedmont Land Trust, and want to preserve your land, go to the Land Trust Alliance - an umbrella group of most of the land trust organizations in the entire country - and find one that is active in your area, since many areas are covered by at least one group, and sometimes more. I hope the link will show below, but if not: http://www.lta.org/

You can also ask The Nature Conservancy if they know of any land trusts/conservancy groups in your area, but the TNC emphasis is on large parcels of land - they can and do sell lands left to them if they feel they can use the money to protect another, more fitting parcel of land, so they themselves may not be able to help.

While the end result of all conservation easements is the same, to protect and preserve the land, all easements are not the same - each one is drawn up for the land in question and to the owners' wishes. Some have been written for 5 acres and others for 500 or 5,000 acres. It does help if the land in question has wildlife, scenic qualities, water or size, as well as contiguity to other preserved lands, but a small gem standing on its own would not be ignored.

Here is a link that might be useful: Land Trust Allance

We may end up willing our land to the Triangle Land Conservancy, or the land in the floodway at the least. I need to look at what's involved with turning it over now, because I still want to be able to mow the two fields once a year and keep the paths mowed.

Alicia, if the Triangle Land Conservancy operates like most LTs, then you can set a conservation easement up to do whatever you want - I know of easements on working farms, managed woodlands, bird sanctuaries, etc., as well as on private land. You can set it up so you can mow, you can reserve a future building site, whatever you want that still allows conservation values to be met. If you will the land to the TLC, then set that up in advance, so you and they are clear on your wishes and on what can and can't be done in the future. You can also put an easement on it, which is permanent, goes with the deed and can't be changed without a major amount of hassle, and then your heirs can sell if they want, but the land is protected as you want.

Thank you dibbit. That is reassuring. I wish that everyone that has land in the creek bottomland where I live would turn it over to the Conservancy. I have heard in the dim far-off future that Middle Creek may be dammed, and if that happens I wouldn't be surprised if someone tries to develop in the floodplain. It may still be too wet though, since the area receives the run-off from everywhere else.