Realtors will give away land trusts memberships
By Scott Nicholson
nicholson@wataugademocrat.com

The Ginn Company and MAP Realty are the first Watauga County companies to join a regional movement to help marry land conservation with real-estate development.

Ginn Laurelmor, a division of the Ginn Company that is developing a 5,600-acre resort in southeastern Watauga County, kicked off a new Realtor program as part of the Blue Ridge Forever campaign.

Under the commitment, Ginn and MAP Realty will give a one-year membership to a local land trust as a donation to anyone who buys a property from them. The companies will also make a donation to the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust, the organization that is serving as the agent to place about a third of the development under permanent conservation easement.

Phyllis Stiles, campaign director of Blue Ridge Forever, said nearly 100 realty agents are signed up for the program in the 25-county area covered by the campaign, but Ginn and MAP are the first to commit locally.

The campaign was launched to raise awareness of land trusts and conservation work in conjunction with development, hoping to foster a compatible relationship instead of competition between developers and environmentalists.

“Survey after survey says the public doesn’t understand what land trusts do,” Stiles said. “We’re hoping to educate people. It’s really a public-private partnership. The best way to protect individual habitat is to permanently protect the land. We have a truly American treasure here.”

Stiles hopes the land buyers who get the gift of a one-year membership in a conservation organization will take the time to understand the organization’s work and goals. “We hope the clients will renew after their year is up,” Stiles said.

Ginn and the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust have been working together for several years and BRRLT was one of the first partners consulted when the company bought the large parcel of land in Watauga and Wilkes counties. About 1,500 homes, a lodge and golf course are planned for the property. In a one-day sell-off event last year, the company netted $150 million in property sales, with construction of some homes already underway.

Laurelmor planners have set aside about 2,700 acres for permanent conservation easement. Independent biological surveys have turned up river otters, bog turtles, two types of rare warblers and a paucity of invasive species, and the resort has been vocal about its desire to protect water quality in the sensitive watershed.

“We cannot think of a more appropriate gift for our owners than to connect them to the Blue Ridge Rural Land Trust,” said Doug Miller, president of Ginn’s Eastern Mountain Region, in a statement.

The BRRLT is one of 13 conservation organizations participating in Blue Ridge Forever, a five-year campaign to raise awareness and financial resources to protect 50,000 acres by 2010.

Stiles said the donations were particularly important because they could be leveraged against other funding sources and have an impact in the total amount of preserved land. She said every dollar raised privately was matched by three dollars in public funding and another three dollars in donated land value.

BRRLT executive director James Coman said the two participating companies recognize that a healthy housing market depends on pristine views and landscapes, suggesting conservation is also a good marketing strategy. “Homebuyers are drawn to the very qualities of a community that land trusts protect,” he said. “We are grateful for these firms’ leadership and look forward to creating relationships with their new homeowners. This makes for a natural partnership between the real estate agent, the land trust and the new homeowner.”

Stiles said she expected the Boone-based High Country Conservancy would eventually receive new members as more Realtors sign on for the program. Stiles said with 8,800 active Realtors in the 25 mountain counties, there was plenty of room for growth over the final two years of the campaign.

“Everybody can see there’s a lot more development in the mountains,” Stiles said. “That’s why we applaud the Laurelmor folks, so that even though they are developing the land, they recognize the importance of preservation.”

Stiles noted the biological diversity of the mountains and the loss of an estimated 261,000 acres of forests and farms over the last two decades. The Blue Ridge Forever campaign brought together the 13 regional land conservation groups to pool resources and boost membership.

By Stiles’s count, there are still thousands of regional Realtors who have a direct, inexpensive and easy way to introduce their clients to conservation through an annual membership that costs an average of $35.

“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” Stiles said. “We’re up to almost 100 (real estate) agents and we want to keep growing until the campaign ends in 2010.”