New Land Conservation Initiatives in East Tennessee
by Gary Moore, Middle TN Project Manager, Land Trust for Tennessee
The Aslan Foundation of Knoxville in cooperation with the Appalachian RC&D and The Land Trust for Tennessee successfully entered into a grant together as the beginning of 2014 to conserve more fertile farmland in East Tennessee.
The goal of The Land Trust for TN in this project is to educate and inform landowners about the land conservation and protection opportunities available to them in keeping their farms and forestland as productive acreages of row crops, livestock, and or forests forever through conservation easements attached to the deed. Hopefully, as time progresses and landowners begin to consider conservation easements, then additional funds will be used to offset some of the transaction costs.
We are excited to have a new brochure especially for Northeast TN. Efforts to spread the word began this summer with letters mailed out to 300 landowners; exhibiting at the Greeneville UT Experiment Station; and informational meetings with partners at Natural Resources Conservation Service, Farm Service Agency, Greene County UT Extension Service, Greene County Farm Bureau, TN Division of Forestry, Rural Resources, Greene County Soil Conservation District, Farm Credit Service, and the TN Department of Agriculture. An upcoming outreach activity planned is the sponsorship and presentation that is to be made on October 30th for the Greene County Farm/ City Annual Meeting and Banquet.
Note from the editor: The partnership between ARC&D and LTTN has been active since 2005. If you want to learn more about what a conservation easement is, link here to our page on conservation. If you are a landowner who would like to learn more about different conservation options, contact the RC&D or the Land Trust for TN.
