Agenda - 05-06-2003 - 6c - Laserfiche WebLink

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Please consider the following letter from Margaret Brown, Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners, as a letter to the editor. Letter to the Editor: In a January 25th article ( "Region Steps Up Effort for Land "), the writer asserts that the new Triangle Land Conservancy report State of Open Space 2002 finds Orange County among local governments "lagging on [its] land protection goals." However, a careful reading of the report would find that Orange County, with its Lands Legacy Program, has in fact been very successful in its first two years of existence. Since the program's enaction in April 2000, Orange County has protected 800 acres of critical natural and cultural resource lands, including several new park and nature preserve sites. Conservation easements on an additional 460 acres are currently well underway. Funds authorized by Orange County voters have been leveraged with almost $2 million in State and Federal grants toward these acquisitions of natural areas, farmland easements and park sites. The County has partnered with other local governments and Triangle Land Conservancy in several of these acquisitions. In fact, the report itself highlights the Orange County Lands Legacy Program for its success, and offers it as a model to other local governments in the region as a way to partner with conservation agencies toward land conservation. The report also notes that Orange County has protected more land than Durham County and Wake County combined during the study timeframe. To be sure, there are many acres of important resource lands in Orange County that remain to be protected, and the County has set very lofty goals, but the implication that Orange County is lagging in protection of important resource lands is misleading. Margaret W. Brown Chapel Hill (The writer is Chair of the Orange County Board of Commissioners)