By Karissa Minn
kminn@salisburypost.com
SALISBURY ó As rural land disappears in Rowan County, local preservationists are working hard to save it.
But while opportunities to preserve that land are flooding in, the funding to take advantage of them has run dry.
The economic downturn is to blame for both trends, said Jason Walser, executive director of The LandTrust for Central North Carolina.
ěWeíre getting phone calls from people who have never called us before, like developers who are in trouble,î he said. ěThere are properties that weíve never had available at a cheaper price, but weíre just saying ënoí to a lot of projects. … Itís ironic and frustrating.î
Normally, the state will award grants from one of its trust funds to preserve land or create parks, Walser said. But less and less money has been available in those funds, and North Carolinaís budget this year diverted most of it to other government programs.
Walser said the general public may be less interested now in protecting natural land as they are in better economic times, but The LandTrust wants to prepare for the future.
In 1976, just 1.9 percent of land in Rowan County was developed, leaving 98.1 percent natural or rural, according to maps created by the Renaissance Computing Institute (RENCI).
By 2006, 20 percent of the land had been developed, and the RENCI model projects that number will reach 32.6 percent ó just under one third of the county ó by 2030.
Some of The LandTrustís plans to protect undeveloped land have now stalled or fallen through, Walser said. Those include a passive park in Landis, which is waiting on a state-funded grant, and gamelands near Kannapolis.
But the state of the economy has also driven some land preservation projects that wouldnít have happened otherwise.
The sluggish real estate market discouraged development of a 40-acre hardwood forest in Spencer. Instead, to recover costs, the company that owned the land planned to clear-cut it last year.
The LandTrust was able to work with the company to save the trees, and itís now raising money to buy the property for a public park. (See related story.)
Walser said he is excited about recent opportunities to protect property on the Yadkin River where Salisbury gets its drinking water, create another public access point on the Uwharrie River and preserve rare long-leaf pine trees near Morrow Mountain State Park.
The goal of The LandTrust isnít to fight development but to conserve land for the people surrounding it, Walser said.
This includes preserving outdoor recreation spots, as well as natural areas with ecological or historical significance.
ěSometime in the next two to three generations, thereís not going to be natural land all around us the way there once was,î Walser said. ěThereís only so much more that we have.î

The RENCI maps for 1976, 1985, 1996 and 2006 are based on analysis of actual satellite images, said Vicki Bott, senior policy associate at UNC Charlotte Urban Institute, which is participating in the project.
To model the years 2010, 2015, 2020, 2025 and 2030, Bott said, researchers looked at the five biggest drivers of land development in different regions of the state.
In the Charlotte region, those are proximity to existing development, road density, distance to highway interchanges, distance to urban centers and land slope.
For the most part, how much of a countyís land is developed depends on population.
According to U.S. Census data released this year, Rowan Countyís population rose by 6.2 percent from 2000 to 2010 ó more slowly than it did in the previous decade.
More urban counties have grown much faster. In Cabarrus County, closer to Charlotte, the population rose by 35.8 percent over the past 10 years.
The RENCI maps show that developed land in Cabarrus increased from 2.2 percent of the county in 1976 to 28.4 percent in 2006, at a rate only slightly higher than Rowan.
But by 2030, development is projected to spread rapidly over 68.1 percent of Cabarrus County, with less than two-thirds of the land left natural or rural.

John Wear, director of the Center for the Environment at Catawba College, said people sometimes donít notice how quickly an area is changing.
ěWhen we live in a place, change appears to come slowly and gradually,î Wear said. ěI think that these types of visualizations help us realize how that can begin to affect us.î
Wear said increased development can create environmental problems.
Runoff could carry pollutants to rivers, lakes and groundwater, because there are less plants to catch the water and filter it. Flooding is a greater concern when concrete and asphalt keep water from draining.
ěWhen weíre seeing … the loss of natural areas, weíre also losing one of our main filtration systems for our air,î Wear said. ěNot only do plants produce oxygen, but they remove many pollutants.î
Wear said preservation of farmland is vital to keep a local supply of food. Itís also important, he said, to keep natural areas connected to allow animals to migrate back and forth.
ěWhen you begin fragmenting forests and natural areas, over time you begin losing a number of species in that area,î Wear said.
Like Walser, Wear said development isnít a bad thing, but he added that local leaders need to plan for rapid growth.
Industry is best suited for areas near the interstate and dense infrastructure, while farmland and forests can thrive in more remote areas. Land can be developed in a way that doesnít harm water quality or important animal habitats.
ěWhen itís thought out well, people put their heads together to think of what they want the county to look like in the future,î Wear said, ěand what they want their children and grandchildren to be enjoying in the future.î
Contact reporter Karissa Minn at 704-797-4222.