Beloved Georgia Farm Protected Forever

The Conservation Fund is excited to announce that we’ve permanently protected Woodland Gardens Organic Farm, a 48-acre organic farm just outside Athens, Georgia that has long helped feed the region. Athens is one of the fastest-growing cities in the South — and the farmland on its edges is at risk of disappearing. Now permanently protected from development, Woodland Gardens will remain a working farm forever. 

As the University of Georgia community expands and development pressures intensify, the farmland on the edges of town faces an existential threat. Once a field is paved over, it doesn’t come back — the soil, the farming relationships, the fresh food supply, all of it gone for good. 

This isn’t unique to Athens. Every hour, 40 acres of America’s farmland are lost to development. Since 2000, more than 50 million acres have disappeared — most acutely on the edges of growing cities.