Highlighting land trusts during Drinking Water Week

We drink water every day — or at least we should — and every day we do so without thinking too hard about where that water is coming from or how safe it is to ingest.

A decades-long tradition led by the American Water Works Association, Drinking Water Week is a celebration recognizing the vital role water plays in everyday life and helps us think about the significant role that safe drinking water plays in keeping us healthy.

A 2021 Gallup poll showed that most Americans worry “a great deal” about pollution in their drinking water, rivers and lakes, and individuals across our country’s ideological spectrum consistently rank water quality degradation higher than other environmental concerns. Land trusts can play a crucial role in addressing those concerns and maintaining clean drinking water. Forests, grasslands and wetlands help filter stormwater and recharge groundwater, and by protecting the lands around water sources, we can provide clean drinking water and reduce water treatment costs.

One of those land trusts making a difference for water is the accredited Finger Lakes Land Trust in Ithaca, N.Y. Earlier this year, the land trust accepted a donation of land above the southwestern shore of Skaneateles Lake, the source of unfiltered drinking water for the city of Syracuse:

Protection of the parcel will safeguard the lake’s water quality by prohibiting development on its steep slopes. Development pressures are steadily increasing around the lake and protecting steep wooded hillsides stabilizes soils and prevents erosion and sediment loading into the lake.

The 15 acres are adjacent to an existing property acquired by the Land Trust in 2020 from Cayuga County and in close proximity to another parcel donated in 2018. In addition to protecting water quality, creating a network of conserved lands at the south end of the lake ensures the scenic character of the area and safeguards wildlife habitat.

In North Carolina, the accredited Foothills Conservancy of North Carolina recently acquired three conservation easements totaling 130 acres of permanent stream protection buffer along the Catawba River and its tributaries.

From a Foothills Conservancy news release, the efforts are just one piece of a 50-year planning process to execute the region’s vision for protecting the Catawba River and lake system:

These properties will help protect water quality in the upper section of the Catawba River Basin and will be added to Foothills Conservancy’s vast portfolio of permanently protected lands around Lake James…

…In the future, ownership of the easement areas and the surrounding land will be transferred to the State of North Carolina, with Foothills Conservancy holding and stewarding the permanent conservation easements. These lands are also the future site of a co-location section of the Fonta Flora State Trail and Overmountain Victory State and National Historic Trail.

The Catawba River and its miles of connected streams and tributaries provides recreation and drinking water to millions of people downstream.

There is an intimate connection between what happens on the land and the quality of the water that flows from it, and we celebrate those land trusts doing the work to protect land — efforts that include protecting wetlands that intercept and filter polluted precipitation, planting trees along riverbanks and encouraging farming practices that hold topsoil in place — that ultimately benefits water quality.