Triangle Land Conservancy

Tlc allocated available resources as follows for fy 2023: acquisition of conservation Land and easements $ 9,597,183 contributed conservation Land and easements 4,817,094 total conservation Land and easements 14,414,277 program service expenses 3,922,613 total allocation of resources for conservation Land and easements and program services 18,336,890 (93% of total allocation) support service expenses (7% of total alloc.) 1,416,546 total allocation of resources for fy 2023 $ 19,753,436(continued on schedule o)founded in 1983, Triangle Land Conservancy (tlc) has spent the past 40 years conserving over 23,500 acres of Land in north carolina through Land purchases and conservation easements. In fy2023 tlc continued to work with individual, corporate and foundation donors, as well as local and state governments, and protected 910 acres, with over a thousand more in process. Tlc's 2018 strategic plan set a goal of doubling our pace of conservation to conserve 25,000 acres by 2025, including 3,000 acres of farmland specifically. While all Land is vulnerable, nc is currently on track to lose nearly 1.2 million acres of farmland to development by by 2040, making the state's farmland some of the most threatened in the nation. As the impacts of rapid development and weather events related to climate change are increasingly being felt across the region, tlc will continue prioritizing the most critical lands for conservation, including farmland and wild areas.despite Land rapidly disappearing, Land prices continuing to skyrocket and fewer landowners being able or willing to donate even a small part of the value of their property, tlc continues to make headway towards meeting the goals for 2025. With a wide array of skills across our growing staff, we continue to seek new and creative ways to keep up the pace of conservation, from implementing the buy-conserve-sell model to protect disappearing farmland to inspiring private donations to leverage government funds for Land protection. Conservation strategies: in fy2023, tlc protected 910 additional acres of priority conservation Land, bringing our 40-year total to 23,651 acres. Tlc stewards almost 7,000 acres across 83 owned properties and protects 9,842 acres through 170 conservation easements. Each of these conservation properties support at least two of the four benefits that tlc prioritizes: safeguarding clean water, local farms and foods, natural habitat, and connecting people with nature. Conservation easements are legal agreements between a landowner and a Land trust that limit uses of the Land in order to protect its conservation values in perpetuity. Specific terms of individual easements vary, but in general they limit future development.notably, in fy2023, tlc completed the transfer of 1,121 acres known as the brogden bottomlands to the state of nc. The property is a suitable site for a future state park and a pathway for the mountains-to-sea trail (mst). The mst is a 1,175-mile trail system that runs from the smoky mountains to the outer banks and connects to ten state parks. The area holds many unique natural features found in a few places in north carolina and is listed as a regionally significant habitat by the nc natural heritage program.more than a third (394) of the 910 acres protected this year are farmland, including a 257-acre easement on a century dairy farm in chatham county. In fy23 tlc also protected 521 acres of state-identified natural heritage sites and 6 miles of stream, bringing tlc's 40-year total to 170 miles of stream. All of the 910 conserved acres will protect drinking water for the Triangle. Tlc has also continued our efforts to ensure outdoor spaces are accessible to everyone in the Triangle. This goal cannot become reality without actively working to end systemic racism, which for centuries has led to inequities in ownership of, access to, and enjoyment of the outdoors. As part of this work, we continue working on the good ground initiative, which aims to both protect local farms and increase Land ownership by historically disenfranchised farmers.

Community engagement: started as a volunteer-led organization, tlc prides itself on continuing to work with volunteers as a way to both leverage staff efforts and help us reach our goal to conserve wild and working lands, as well as a way to engage more people outdoors. Our volunteer community increased to 352 volunteers who contributed 2,915 hours to tlc in fy23. Volunteers help with essential functions for our organization, including completing stewardship duties, landscape restoration, office tasks, leading hikes, programs, and more! In particular, tlc now has over 100 volunteers trained as trail guides who can lead interpretive hikes and teach environmental education programs. (continued on schedule o)tlc held 84 events in fy23, engaging 2,684 people, and we collaborated with 95 different community partners. In february 2023 we returned to hosting wild ideas in person, with a two-part event (the second to be held in fy24) titled wild i.d.e.a.s for a more vibrant tomorrow- dynamic talks to inspire inclusion, diversity, equity and access in the outdoors at the nc museum of natural sciences. The expo brought 25 community partners together.communications: in 2023, tlc expanded our communications team to support increased connection and education in the community and completed a strategic communications plan. Twice yearly, tlc's confluence newsletter was mailed to 4,400 members, and over 8,700 email subscribers receive our two monthly e-newsletters, meander and hike & play. Staff maintained and updated printed signage at tlc's eight nature preserves and completed a thorough update in addition to new permanent signage of four kiosk displays at johnston mill nature preserve. Forty-five articles were written and published on tlc's blog, the dirt, including several translated into spanish. To recognize tlc's fortieth anniversary, the team completed special logo branding that was then implemented throughout all printed and digital media. Communications staff worked closely with tlc's education team to produce the first in-person wild ideas program since the pandemic that drew hundreds of attendees and partners. Tlc's work was featured in several publications including articles in the raleigh news & observer and Triangle business journal among others. Tlc's brand recognition on social media grew in 2023, as the number of followers across social channels increased from 17,000 to 20,000. Most of our audience is on facebook and instagram, which have 12,223 and 5,885, respectively. Tlc also has 2,061 followers on linkedin. Tlc's website has 112,000 active users and 174,855 sessions were logged in 2023 with an average session duration of 2m 16s. Community members in the 34-54 age range visit tlc's website the most. 67% access the tlc website through mobile phones. Over 54% of our monthly website visitors navigate to our website directly by clicking a link from our social media posts, from emails, or by searching online entering related keywords such as: hiking, biking, trails for walking. Other website traffic comes from people who saw and clicked on a tlc ad found on google or meta's audience network (facebook, instagram).

Stewardship: tlc's stewardship responsibilities continued to increase in fy23: currently tlc holds 170 conservation easements on 9,842 acres and owns 6,954 acres of Land. As an accredited Land trust, all 16,796 acres must be monitored, managed, and cared for by stewardship staff annually to ensure that the easement terms are not violated and owned property is being maintained. In addition to hiring more stewardship staff, as the number of easements held by tlc increases, we have enlisted and trained volunteers to monitor some of them. After completing a training program, volunteers use a monitoring and mapping app and go on at least one monitoring visit with a tlc staff member before being eligible to monitor easements on their own. (continued on schedule o)in fy23 trained volunteers contributed 250 hours to volunteer 46 of tlcs easements.in fy23, tlc continued to maintain the 54 miles of trail (28 for hiking and 26 multi-use trails) at our public nature preserves which thousands of people enjoy every month. In fy23, brumley and williamson preserves continued to see increased usage, averaging 3,500 and 2,200 visitors per month, respectively. Tlc's stewardship staff also work to maintain, restore and improve habitat on tlc Land by removing invasive species, planting native plants, and conducting prescribed burns. In fy23 their activities at brumley preserve were supported by a grant by the cornell lab of ornithology, and bird monitoring was carried out by the new hope chapter of the audubon society.tlc continued implementation of the farm plan at williamson preserve and hosts 5 farm partners, who use regenerative agriculture techniques to support perennial and annual crops, livestock, and a native tree nursery.