August 2001
Contents

Message From the Executive Director
  .  Education: A Large Part of What We Do

Conservation Easements:
  .  Fariview Farms Preserved
  .  Four Columns Property Preserved
  .  Paris Mountain Property Preserved
  .  Sloan Family Grants Conservation
Easement on 200 Acres of Land In
Southern Greenville County

Conservation Bank Act
  .  Conservation Bank Act Stalls in Legislature

Green Development
  .  New Directions in Land Use and Design
  .  Upstate Forever's Green Schools Initiative

Staff, Board, Members and Volunteers
  .  Kris Yon, Leon Patterson, Keith Marrero Join Upstate Forever Board of Directors
  .  Staff News and UF Field Trips

Message From the Executive Director

EDUCATION: A LARGE PART
OF WHAT WE DO

Much of our work at Upstate Forever involves education-providing information, bringing in speakers, and trying to stimulate discussion about different approaches and solutions to land use, conservation, and sustainable development issues in our region. We do this through our newsletter, web site, Upstate Update (our e-mail bulletin), speaking to groups, field trips, and sponsoring lectures and conferences.

     We are particularly proud of the two major conferences we have held one on conservation easements last November and the other on green development last May, both of which were made possible by a generous grant from the Mott Foundation. Our goal was for 100 people to attend our conservation easement conference, and we were delighted to have nearly 300 there! Our co-sponsor, the Foothills Resource Conservation and Development Council, did a great job in getting the word out about the event to major landowners throughout the region.

     Just two weeks after the conference, Upstate Forever received its first conservation easement, protecting a 200-acre tract in southern Greenville County. By the end of the year we had received two more: the 120-acre Four Columns property in northern Spartanburg County and a 141-acre tract that borders Paris Mountain State Park. Later this year, we will be receiving a conservation easement on the spectacular Fairview Farms, a 1,200-acre tract along the Pacolet River in Spartanburg County. There is an article about each easement in this newsletter.

     On May 8, we sponsored an all-day conference on Green Development: New Directions in Land Use and Design. Attended by over 180 people, this conference featured national experts on site design, environmentally friendly building materials, and new urbanism and concluded with a panel of local officials, architects and bankers to discuss how to make green development a reality in the Upstate. There is a four page article on green development in this newsletter.

     The conference could not have come at a better time. The Greenville County School District is embarking on one of the largest school construction projects in the United States_the building and renovation of over 60 schools at a cost of almost $800 million. Last March we presented to the School Board and its contractor a proposal called "Green Schools for Greenville," advocating for the application of green development principles to the project. This is truly an historic opportunity to implement this project in a way that will improve student performance and reduce energy costs, while setting the standard for school projects throughout the country. Our proposal has been well received, and we are pleased to report that the School Board has approved an additional $2 million to incorporate "green thinking" into the project. This is a very positive step in the right direction.

     Yeats wrote, "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." I hope that our efforts are lighting a fire for different and better ways to grow and develop in the Upstate.