As a member of the community, BRRLT is dedicated to working with and for landowners. We have no agenda other than the preservation of land. Our services are free, thanks to people like you, and serve only those who seek our services. BRRLT is a low profile organization by design. Our purpose is to preserve and protect land without confrontation.

You may ask, “So if a landowner donates an easement, what does it cost the land trust? Why do you need so much financial support?” Although the easement may be free of cost, the process of making the donation can be costly for both the landowner and the land trust. Our staff typically spends 200 hours in order to complete just one easement donation. This time involves meeting with the landowner on several occasions, reviewing the easement document thoroughly each time changes are made, raising needed funds to defray various costs, arranging surveys and environmental site assessments, and drawing up baseline reports. Thus, a donated easement costs the land trust significantly in salary for the staff – normally the Executive Director and enlisted volunteers - office overhead, and travel. We have no steady source of income. Occasional grants from private foundations are helpful, but they do not provide the reliable base of support that can only come from our community.

Over the five-year period January 1998 through January 2003 Blue Ridge Rural Land trust has protected 3118 acres at a total overhead cost of approximately $375,000. This figure includes all salary, office overhead, survey, legal, accounting, and contractor services costs. The total appraised value of conservation easements donated to BRRLT in this time totals $7,100,000.00. Thus, each dollar donated to Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust over that five year period has leveraged easement donations worth $18.93. BRRLT has been negotiating conservation easement donations at an average cost of $120.27 per acre over the past five years. Given that land values in our area are now in the range of $3000 to $10,000 per acre for tracts of 100 acres or more, BRRLT’s conservation methods prove to be an extremely cost-efficient means of protecting land.

Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust needs your support in order to continue protecting the land, landscape, and culture of northwestern North Carolina that we all love. We operate as a publicly-supported land trust because people recognize that we perform a service from which they benefit, whether they are landowners or not. Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust needs members and donors. We also need volunteers to assist us in a variety of tasks, including public speaking, staffing the booth at fairs and festivals, public outreach, organizing and leading field trips, and various office tasks. Please join BRRLT and become involved in our efforts to protect our land resources and our communities.