Parks and Recreation System Master Plan Update (2016) parks_and_recreation_system_master_plan_update_oct | Page 35

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Watterson Park (Lillian Wild Walking Path)
Woodland Hills (Hardy Brinly Park)
In addition to public parkland,
there are approximately 4,470 acres
of privately-owned open space land
in Louisville that are permanently,
protected for conservation and/or
historic purposes by land trusts. Land
held by conservation easements
comprises 1,551 acres and land held
in fee simple 2,923 acres:
• Riverfields, a nonprofit land trust formed in 1959, holds conservation easements on
2,200 acres in both Louisville and Oldham County. 1,074 of those are in Louisville and
Riverfields holds 64 acres in fee simple in Louisville. 46 acres of that fee simple land is
open to the public from dawn to dusk at the Garvin Brown Preserve.
• Future Fund, a nonprofit organization and foundation founded in 1992, holds 3,382
acres in the Floyds Fork watershed in Louisville and Bullitt Counties. 2,859 of those acres
are in Louisville. Future Fund owns 2,742 acres in fee simple, and 117 are held by
conservation easement. 1,905 of these acres are part of the Parklands of Floyds Fork,
and are open to the public and permanently protected by deed restrictions.
• The Louisville/Jefferson County Environmental Trust (LJCET), a quasi-governmental land
trust, formed by ordinance in 1997, oversees conservation easements on 1,050 acres in
Jefferson and Oldham Counties with 338 acres in Jefferson (eight acres are open to the
public as part of the Parklands of Floyds Fork) and works with the Louisville Landmarks
Commission to oversee another 22 acres of land protected by historic preservation
easements. All of these easements are held by Louisville Metro Government with
LJCET’s Oversight Board reviewing offers of conservation easements to Louisville Metro
Government and managing the stewardship responsibilities for those easements.
• The Purchase of Agriculture Conservation Easement (PACE) Program holds a
conservation easement on 189 acres in Louisville. In 1994, the Kentucky General
Assembly established the Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easement Corporation
and authorized the state to purchase agricultural conservation easements in order to
ensure that lands currently in agricultural use will continue to remain available for
agriculture and not be converted to other uses. Although PACE was established to
purchase conservation easements, landowners may also donate conservation
easements in order to dedicate their land to agricultural uses. The PACE program is
administered through the Kentucky Department of Agriculture.
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III. CONTEXT AND COMMUNITY INVENTORY | October 2016 Update