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"There can be no greater issue than that of conservation in this country. " I'"'& WHY ACQUIRE LAND RESOURCES? Theodore Roosevelt 1912 v� Orange County recognizes that while some of its important resources have been protected through state parks and privately held research forests, many other natural and cultural resources have been lost. HOW WILL THE COUNTY PROTECT LAND? • Even with Eno River State Park, based on its population the County has a parkland Orange County will use the following voluntary techniques to acquire new deficitof 645 acres and is projected to have a 1,265-acre deficit in 2025. • An estimated 25% of the County's prime forestiand was lost in the last 20 years, parklands and/or preserve important natural and cultural resources: and many other forest areas have become fragmented and unable to accommodate transaction. oon.Acquisition—outright purchase of land via standard ;eal estate diverse species. transaction. • At least four (and perhaps more) of the County's 64 significant natural areas have Donations and Charitable Gifts— all or a portion of the land is donated; been lost or modified substantially since 1988. the landowner may be eligible for federal and state tax credits. • Farmland in Orange County decreased from 187,000 acres in 1957 to 671000 acres Conservation Easements — voluntary legal agreement between a in 1997. landowner and a land management agency that limits some of the • Many important archaeological sites may be lost annually due to lack of information owner's uses of the property in order to achieve conservation purposes. and relevant data on their location. aLife-Lease Agreements— land is purchased, but the landowner retains the right to remain on the land for a specified duration agreeable to both While not all resources can or should be protected by the public sector, a program parties. focused on identifying the most critical of these areas will allow the County to protect 0Timber Rights— purchase the rights to cut timber on the property at a environmental and cultural assets vital to the long-term public interest. The County will cost considerably less than buying the land or development rights. protect some properties on its own, and will work with local land trusts, adjoining jurisdictions and other partners to protect lands in a cooperative manner. In addition, some recreation and open space lands will be preserved through the Development Process, where conservation lands are set aside from development Despite over two centuries of existence as a local .government, Orange County owns as a part of the County's approval of a new development proposal. The very little land. An inventory of lands conducted in the summer of 1999 showed that the development process is administered the Planning and Inspection Department. County owned a total of 632 acres (0.24%, or less than a quarter of one percent of the County's 256,000 acres). None of those landholdings includes significant wildlife habitat WHAT FUNDS WILL BE USED TO SUPPORT THE PROGRAM? or prime farmland. County lands at Seven-Mile Creek contain very small portions of two identified natural areas. Of the land currently held for parks, none is actively used for A combination of County funds, grants and cooperative ventures will be used to recreation —although 144 acres are planned for future parks. fund acquisitions on both a short-term and long-term basis. The Lands Legacy Fund, derived primarily from sales tax revenues, was created to support the program. In addition, county park bond funds and funds generated by new development will be utilitized for parkland acquisition. Orange County will HOW WILL ORANGE COUNTY IDENTIFY LANDS FOR POSSIBLE aggressively pursue state and federal grant funds available to local governments ACQUISITION OR PROTECTION? for meeting a variety of land conservation objectives, and has been successful with $770,000 of grant moneys approved to date. First, important resource lands will be identified using various recent inventories of county natural areas, wildlife habitat, prime farmland, and The primary costs involved with land acquisition include the purchase cost of the cultural and historic sites. New information on resources is also being properly or easement, real estate appraisals, property surveys, environmental generated. site assessment, attorneys fees and title insurance. In addition, land manage- ment and stewardship are long-term costs of property acquisition. Second, the locations of those resources will be mapped using a geographic information system (GIS). Using GIS, a Comprehensive Resource Database The types of land and "open space" that Orange County intends to protect will be used along with established acquisition criteria to evaluate potential through the Lands Legacy program include the following: sites, prioritize those sites and target high-priority sites for possible acquisition. The County will add new data as it becomes available and will parkland update the existing data regularly. natural.areas and wildlife habitat • riparian buffers • prime farmland • historic and cultural sites