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Triangle Land Conservancy and Irvin Farm Visit ​

Triangle Land Conservancy 1101 Haynes Suite 205 Raleigh, NC 27604 919-833-3662 info@triangleland.org It is often surprising how easy it can be to travel from the city to rural North Carolina. After a relatively short drive from school and a mere 10 minutes from Chapel Hill civilization we found ourselves in the midst of rolling farmland and endless forests. We arrived at Irvin Farm, a preserve of the Triangle Land Conservancy donated several years earlier, and were met by goats, chickens, trees, fields, and gardens. Our tour was given by Doug Nicholas, Director of Communications for TLC, who arrived in the triangle in 1991 to earn a master’s degree in journalism at UNC Chapel Hill. His interests lay in public relations with a particular concern for the environment. Doug was lucky enough to receive a position at TLC in 1999 and has remained there ever since. We all sat around picnic tables under a shelter designed for the farm's learning program surrounded by pear trees and other flora. It was a beautiful, breezy day to learn about the work that TLC does to preserve the area. As a local conservation organization they work to protect wildlife habitats, increase water quality, offer natural areas of recreation, preserve local farms, and create spaces where city dwellers can reconnect with nature. Their many preserves have been purchased, achieved in collaboration with state parks, donated, or given through conservation easements. These easements are a great way for homeowners to retain their land while also preserving it for future generations. The easement places permanent restrictions on future use of one’s land, giving a nature conservancy or some such organization the authority to preserve and enforce said restrictions. The owner can retain their land for the duration of their life and know that it will be preserved after their death. Through these means, since their founding in 1983, TLC has preserved about 14,000 acres throughout the triangle. TLC has been changing recently; however, this is why we found ourselves at Irvin Farm and not in an office building somewhere. Many conservancies, TLC included, have recently been working to change their philosophies and ultimately the way the talk about what they do. For many years preservation groups have projected an image to the public of “bucks and acres”. In other words we have conserved so many acres for so many dollars. This information is of little use to the public and really has no impact on their lives. Instead of talking about acres and dollars TLC is now talking about the benefits of preservations and their many uses for the public. The benefits of ‘real-estate undevelopement’ (as TLC calls it) include wildlife habitats, cleaner water and subsequently better health, a foundation for local farmers, areas for public recreation, and places for people to connect with nature. This last benefit seems rather basic, yet in a world where so much natural space is eaten up by development and many people live in concrete jungles, it becomes increasingly important. Being in a natural area offers an often soothing effect. In fact, several days ago at TLC’s Johnstons Mill, several minutes from CFS, the temperature in the preserve parking lot was 104. In such scalding heat it is barely possible to move, inside the preserve near the river, however, the temperature dropped to 80. The river itself was 70. Cooling is just one of the many benefits that such natural areas offer us. Irvin Farm has become the hub of TLC’s new philosophy. In the several years it has belonged to TLC they have managed to refurbish the land (it was in quite a state of disarray) and provide the infrastructure for the Learning Farm opened last summer. All 270 acres are open to a group of conservation educators that run camps throughout the year for about k-5th graders. In just a year the kids have been raising 7 chickens and their own self-planted, natural, pesticide-free garden. In the nearby pond the children learn about how to determine water quality and the natural organisms that exemplify a healthy body of water. Our group was able to view this pond in comparison with that of the farm’s neighbor’s. The neighbor’s pond experiences run off from cattle manure and was a much murkier color with very little plant life. Irvin’s pond, however, was covered with greenery and bugs were visible at every turn (the farm’s dog happily took a swim in the healthy water). The children are also exposed to farm animals like goats and chickens as well as a natural plants garden which houses only local plants that draw in native species of butterfly and the like. The farm also has about 200 acres of forest where sustainable methods are being used to preserve the grounds and keep them healthy. The learning farm had a very successful first year and continues to create an environment where children can become comfortable in the natural world, while also learning valuable life skills. Irvin Farm is not only an area for children to learn about the natural world. A very recent grant from the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Foundation of $100,000 is allowing TLC to expand the farms use. Due to the grant, Irvin Farm is partnering with the Inter-faith Food Shuttle to create a 5-acre garden that will produce food for the hungry throughout the area. The Food Shuttle collects unused food from grocery stores, restaurants, and other areas and delivers it to organizations that feed the hungry. They are now composed of 220 food donors contributing 5 million pounds of food annually and volunteers that give 38,000 hours of their time each year. The grant allows TLC to provide the space and infrastructure for this garden while the Food Shuttle will care for the produce and deliver it throughout the triangle. In this way even the hungry will be able to experience locally grown organic food. The groups hope that by 2014 the garden will be producing 40,000 pounds of food. If this staggering achievement is not enough to impress, TLC has added yet another layer to the farm. The average farmer in North Carolina, and really throughout the country, is well into their 50’s. Farmers are certainly not getting any younger and most youth look towards a more lucrative field in the business world rather than a career in organic farming. There are several institutions (NC State in particular) in the area with farming programs to help curb this huge age discrepancy and preserve local farming for the future. While these programs for college students are very successful and allow future farmers to learn not only how to farm but how to make a living, they often lack real hands on experience. In a field such as farming, hands-on experience is vital. It is planned that the 5 acre garden designated for the Inter-Faith Food Shuttle and Irvin Farm partnership will provide this firsthand experience. Although many of the nitty-gritty details are still being worked out, the general plan will consist of local farm students each caring for their own portion of the garden. In this way, the land is put to good use, the hungry are provided with organic and delicious food, younger farmers are being reinstated into our economy, and these farmers are given hands-on experience in their future careers. On the whole Irvin Farm represents the future of land conservation. It provides a place of recreation, water quality, children’s education and enjoyment, food for the hungry, hands-on farming, and a much needed place of natural beauty just minutes from the heart of the city.