Projects

As part of our work, we help grassroots organizations access resources and techniques that are available to the national conservation movement, to demonstrate innovative approaches that blend conservation, community economic development and social justice.  Here is a sampling of some of the projects we are currently working on:

Hoke Community Forest

The Conservation Fund's Resourceful Communities Program is working with its partners to establish North Carolina's first community forest on a 532-acre parcel in Hoke County.  The parcel is located north of the county seat of Raeford, about a mile south of Fort Bragg, and adjacent to forestlands with the second largest population in the U.S. of the endangered red-cockaded woodpecker.  In addition to protecting forestland in the area, the community forest will result in reduced military base encroachment, endangered species restoration, sustainable rural economic development, increased recreational opportunities and water quality protection.

Conservation-Based Affordable Housing (CBAH)

A grant by the Clean Water Management Trust Fund given to the Conservation Trust for North Carolina, the North Carolina Community Development Initiative and The Conservation Fund has enabled six community development corporations (CDCs) to do conservation planning for their proposed affordable housing developments.  CBAH preserves open space (including forests, streams, wetlands and other key amenities) by clustering the homes and allowing large swaths of open space to remain. When coupled with affordable housing, the benefits are even greater.  Clustering homes reduces the overall cost of development—infrastructure, landscaping and maintenance costs are all lessened.  If applicable, conservation easements or other types of conservation funding can be used to preserve the remaining open space and lower the cost of development even further.