RJ Taylor

To get more bang for our buck, my thought would be to apply this to donated conservation easements through farmland protection. The monies could be used and leveraged to help cover transaction costs for placing conservation easements on those farmlands.

On Fri, Feb 9, 2024, 6:06 PM RJ Taylor <nc.rjtaylor@gmail.com> wrote: My thought is to use such funds and leverage them along with other grants to protect prime farmlands from future development in our watershed. Buncombe County's Soil and Water District has been working on farmland protection, and has already preserved numerous farms in our community with conservation easements. Since there's probably limited funding available for such initiatives, adding in the Watershed Fund monies might be a way of extending what we protect. Our criteria might be protection of farmlands within the Swannanoa Watershed. By the way, Buncombe County is only a few thousand acres away from protecting 20% of our county area with perpetual land conservation; a goal set up by our County Commissioners.

RJ

On Fri, Feb 9, 2024, 3:01 PM Kevindoylejones1 <kevindoylejones1@gmail.com> wrote: Curious, how would each of you spend the first $10,000 of the #watershed tax for the ecosystem of the Swannanoa River? How can we plan for reliable infusions of system level funding that result in enhanced biodiversity and soil health such that local farmers in the Watershed Fund can believe the tax is in their own best interests, over time. I think the key to its success may be if the farmers are willing to be in relationship with nature rather than being part of commodifying it?.]

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