Rural land is disappearing.

So what, some may say, it is inevitable. As populations grow and towns and cities expand, families need places to call home. Growth is good for communities and for the economy.

As community leaders and others tout the benefits of growth, the pressure to sell farms and forestland to developers is also increased by rising property values. Rural, steep land that mountain families have held for generations was never seen as a good investment. Bottomland that flooded and sometimes became swampy was no good for building. Now, however, all that has changed. The land is worth much more than could ever be made by farming or logging, and even paying the taxes on large holdings is a huge financial burden for many families.

But there are a rising number of alternatives to development. In North Carolina the Farmland Preservation Program received $2.65 million from the legislature from 1998 to 2003. Those appropriations were used to garner more than $26 million in other money and protect about 4,400 acres of farmland.

Amid a tight budget year, however, no money was appropriated in 2004.

There is also a federal Farm and Ranchland Protection Program that is helping families involved in agriculture put their land in permanent easements. Earlier this spring the Land Trust for the Little Tennessee helped Macon County dairy farmer Jim Moore put his 64 acres along the Little Tennessee River into a permanent easement using funds from this federal program. It kept a farmer on his land, helped ensure the success of his small dairy business — where he sells fresh milk, butter, cheese and ice cream — and provided an important buffer to development that is gobbling up land on U.S. 441 between Franklin and Georgia.

“Sooner or later, it was going to be an outlet mall,” said Paul Carlson, executive director of the LTLT.

These government conservation programs are critical to the success of the evolving conservation movement. Today those involved in conservation realize that it is not only wilderness that deserves protection. Our state and federal lawmakers need to be encouraged to support these new conservation programs, even in years when money is tight.

Growth may be good, but smart growth is better. Keeping a patchwork of working farms, timber holdings and forestland interspersed with developments just makes good sense. In this region of the country where small farms and wilderness define a way of life, it is the only way to retain the true character of Appalachia.