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14 <br /> Lands Legacy Action Plan 2024-27 Adopted xx/xx/24 <br /> Lands Legacy Program <br /> Action Plan <br /> Introduction <br /> The purpose of Orange County's Lands Legacy Program, adopted in the year 2000, is to <br /> help protect the county's most important natural and cultural resource lands before they are <br /> damaged or lost to incompatible land-uses activities. The overarching goals of the Lands Legacy <br /> Program have been mutually beneficial to both the protection of valuable natural communities in <br /> addition to preserving Orange Counties rural and farmland character. Much has been <br /> accomplished by the County and its many partners, but there are still many special places needing <br /> some level of protection. <br /> The focal areas for the Lands Legacy Program are: <br /> • Future parks and public open space and trails <br /> • Prime and threatened farmland in water supply watersheds <br /> • Important natural areas and wildlife habitat <br /> • Watershed riparian buffer lands, and <br /> • Cultural and historic sites of significance <br /> Lands Legacy works with landowners who are interested in conserving their land. All projects are <br /> voluntary. Some properties are purchased outright to serve a specific public purpose, such as for <br /> a park or nature preserve, consistent with adopted county plans. Most properties protected <br /> through the program are accomplished with a conservation easement-- a permanent, legal <br /> agreement between the County and the landowner, whereby the land remains in private <br /> ownership. To qualify for a conservation easement, the property must have special "conservation <br /> values,"the protection of which will provide meaningful and lasting public benefit. In most cases, <br /> the property possesses multiple conservation values. Many landowners benefit most in the ability <br /> to continue to own and manage land they would otherwise have financial difficulties to sustain, <br /> while permanently protecting the land and its resources in perpetuity. Efforts have been increased <br /> to incorporate diversity, equity, inclusion and justice (DEIJ) more explicitly to land conservation, <br /> and continue to build on existing relationships with groups and organizations which work to <br /> enhance the conservation of natural and cultural resource lands among historically-underserved <br /> communities in the context of DEIJ. <br /> Likewise, many of the County's conservation goals are symbiotic with efforts to address climate <br /> change and are reflected in the newly adopted Climate Action Plan. Conservation priorities should <br /> also have synergy with climate change objectives. <br /> Projects are considered by staff through a series of ranking criteria to gauge the importance of <br /> conservation to these values. Ranking criteria include several factors including but not limited to <br /> water supply watersheds, prime and threatened farmland, natural heritage areas, and sites of <br /> historic or cultural value. Many of these factors are also very important to State and Federal <br /> grant funding criteria, and are recognized as priorities in State funding matrices. For example, <br /> the occurrence of a North Carolina Inventory of Natural Heritage Areas site is of great bearing. <br /> These areas are occurrences of rare and unique plant and/or animal communities of local, <br /> regional, or statewide significance. The presence of these sites within a project equates to <br /> significant points and ranking for likely funding. <br /> 2 <br />