Last year, they gave up the right to put houses on 50 acres of their farm in exchange for $475,000 from Wake County and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Perry tries to persuade other farmers to do something similar. He gives talks in Wake and Johnston counties and welcomes visitors to his farm near Zebulon.

"People say I wish we would have done this or that," Perry said. "But it's too late after it's got asphalt on it."

As farming has ebbed following the 2004 tobacco buyout, conservationists hope to catch the wave of aging or retiring farmers looking for other uses for their land. It's a race against developers who are swooping into previously rural areas, such as eastern Wake County.

It is a critical time for money as well, says Maximilian Merrill of the N.C. Agricultural Development and Farmland Preservation Trust Fund. A bond referendum that could inject $1 billion into preserving undeveloped land in North Carolina over the next five years is in limbo in the state legislature.

And the trust fund, which has received only $2.65 million since it was established in 1986, is ready to increase its distribution of grants. In 2005, the legislature gave the trust fund a 19-member advisory board, led by Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler, and for the first time a small full-time staff. The House version of the budget this year contains $8 million for the trust fund, but the Senate's version has no funding.

"We're ready to go," Merrill said, "as long as we get the money."

Vying with deep-pocketed developers is not easy.

"Most farmers I talk to, their mailboxes are full of offers," said Kurt Smith, a Wake County open space program manager.

Wake County has its own open space program, which it has funded by about $41 million in bonds issued in 2000 and 2004. Since 2001, the bond money, often matched by town and federal grants, has helped the county buy about 3,500 acres. But almost all the bond money is gone. Wake County voters will decide a $50 million open space bond issue in a referendum in October.

The need to preserve open space is particularly acute in fast-urbanizing places such as Wake County. An estimated 10,000 acres of farmland and forests are gobbled up each year in Wake County by development, according to Emmett Curl, county revenue department director.

Land conservation -- whether through donations, easements or land sales -- can be challenging, Smith said. It is a complex process, involving lots of paperwork and multiple parties. With limited funds, the groups often target properties meeting certain criteria, such as proximity to environmentally sensitive streams.

Deals may be worked out by a land trust, such as Trust for Public Land or Triangle Land Conservancy, then transferred to local governments, such as Wake County. Matching federal grants may require lawyers in Washington to approve the project.

"It ends up being a small percentage of people who have the stomach for it," Smith said.

Larry Perry, 61, sees clear rewards. A retired employee of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, he has always been interested in protecting land. Growing up on the farm and swimming in the critter-filled waters of the Little River inspired him to study wildlife biology at N.C. State University.

Development has been closing in since the opening of U.S. 64 Bypass. The land the Perrys put aside will help protect water quality for a future Little River reservoir Raleigh plans to build.

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