My neighbor sold a conservation easement to a private group here a couple of years ago. They came in and spent millions on remediating creek banks and then fenced it all off to protect it for waterfowl ect.We have some programs here referred to as conservation easements. Basically you agree to having deed restrictions placed on your property permanently prohibiting any development for residential or industrial use. In return, you get a big chunk of money. One of the programs here is run by an environmentalist group that raises private money for fairly remote woodlands, land along rivers and lakes and such.
I was glad to see it myself. About 10 years ago the local Chamber of Commerce targeted our area for an industrial "Mega Site". I fought it for about a year and finally, they went away thanks to a 90-year-old very wealthy widow lady whose farm was the main target because of rail access. She told them that she would not do that to her neighbors. They were still persisting until our local Trustee ( a good friend of mine) asked the Industrial Board if they had ever looked at the flood maps on one of the farms. They spent 10's of thousands of dollars on land purchase options and not even bothered to see that one of the farms is in a yearly flood zone. The conservation easement and a change to the annexation laws has taken care of all of that now.