A private 269-acre preserve in Orange County
Location: 2912B Jones Ferry Road, Chapel Hill, NC, 27516
GPS Coordinates: 35.877168, -79.137170
Irvin Farm Nature Preserve hosts a number of nonprofit partner programs. Photo by Diana Hackenburg, 2015.
About the J. Logan and Elinor Moore Irvin Nature Preserve
Caring for land means different things for different places. Some of the land TLC owns is left alone, for the most part, to serve our community by filtering water on its way to our reservoirs and as a home for wildlife. Other places are able to do that and more like connect human populations with nature or grow local food. And there are a few lands we own that are able to do all of this. One of these special places is Irvin Farm.
Through our partnerships with several other local organizations, TLC’s J. Logan and Elinor Moore Irvin Nature Preserve (Irvin Farm) not only filters water on its way to University Lake and provides a large wildlife habitat, but it also connects children and others to nature and grows local food.
Learning Outside students
Irvin Nature Preserve, a 269-acre mix of forest and farmland in Orange County, is a living legacy of Logan Irvin, a founding board member of TLC, and his wife, Elinor. After Logan’s death in 1984, TLC established the Logan Irvin Fund Stewardship Endowment. Elinor continued the couple’s commitment, leaving their property to TLC upon her death in January 2007.
Irvin Farm provides a perfect backdrop for environmental education. Learning Outside (formerly Irvin Learning Farm) has been hosting a forest kindergarten, camps, workshops, and other events at the preserve since 2009. This entirely outdoor program offers students the opportunity to interact with nature in meaningful ways and in diverse natural habitats and provides scholarships for children who would otherwise not have these quality experiences in nature.
Transplanting Traditions farmer
Irvin Farm is also blessed with good agricultural soil. It would be a shame to not grow fresh food on this land while some in our community go hungry. Through a partnership with the Orange County Partnership for Young Children, we provided space for the Transplanting Traditions Community Farm, a vocational agricultural program that works to build economically viable, environmentally sound, and socially sustainable local agricultural business opportunities for refugees. Transplanting Traditions is now a 501(c)(3) organization and farms on eight acres at Irvin Farm.
Irvin Nature Preserve illustrates that partnerships can result in a project that is greater than its parts. TLC works hard to protect land, and when it makes sense, we are able to put that land to work for our community with the help of our partners.
