A three-year, $225,000 grant from the Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation will help the Conservation Trust for North Carolina accelerate land and water protection by aiding the state’s network of land trusts.

CTNC supports local land trusts by providing grants and loans for land acquisition, advocating for government funding and policy support for conservation, and building public awareness of the benefits of land conservation. The Conservation Trust also works directly with landowners to protect properties along the Blue Ridge Parkway’s natural and scenic corridor, which the grant will help bolster.

North Carolina’s land trusts have protected more than 340,000 acres in nearly 2,000 places statewide. The grant will allow CTNC to leverage partnerships, develop relationships, lift up model projects, and establish incentive programs to enable the local land trusts to take innovative steps to meet today’s conservation challenges.