Our Story 

It started with a map. We unrolled it across the tailgate of a truck, tracing our fingers from the northern edge of Durham county, south to Chatham, east to RDU, and west to Hillsborough. The Triangle was booming, green spaces turning to parking lots, habitats to housing. 

How could two conservation professionals make a difference in protecting the watersheds, farmlands, creeks, and clean air this growing population depended on for health and wellbeing? How could they unite communities around the idea that land matters? 

We started our work with the unrolling of that map. Today, LANDMATTERS collaborates with community organizations, land trusts, private landowners, nonprofits, and green burial advocates and conservation burial professionals to increase capacity for conservation, connect people with land, and turn big picture thinking into strategy and action. 

In 2022, LANDMATTERS led a corps of community volunteers, to launching the first conservation cemetery in central North Carolina. That vision is now Bluestem Conservation Cemetery. Designed as a nature preserve honoring the Carolina Piedmont landscape, Bluestem offers 3.5 miles of hiking trails, quiet areas for reflection, and a unique conservation area for natural burial. Learn more about Bluestem here. 
Top photo: Mapping a Project, Durham County, North Carolina
​Bottom photo: Conservation Property, Durham County, North Carolina