The Piedmont Land Conservancy, or PLC, had a busy 2025. The nonprofit conserves properties in nine counties with the goal of protecting natural lands, water and farmland. This year, four family farms were protected from development, totaling 600 acres.
Executive Director Kevin Redding calls another top preservation project ecologically and geologically unique.
"We bought 75 acres in Randolph County, next to several 100 acres owned by the North Carolina Zoo, and it's called Ridges Mountain," says Redding. "It is open to the public. You can go there and hike, and it has some of the most incredible boulders you'll ever see in this part of the country."
And PLC’s work continues. Redding says they have recently launched an effort to preserve 120 acres at Guilford College in Greensboro. The historically significant area called Guilford Woods was one of the earliest known sites associated with the Underground Railroad.
