DiStefano Conservation Easement

The DiStefano Conservation Easement was donated to Greenbelt in mid-2023 by landowners Robert and Cynthia DiStefano. The easement covers approximately 215 acres of land in northwestern Boone County, just over a mile east of Harrisburg.

About 80 percent of the property consists of high-quality forest and woodland habitat, while the remaining 20 percent contains a system of grasslands and wetlands — including the lake pictured above — that were designed and constructed with the assistance of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources as part of a mine reclamation project. This reclamation work was done both to restore damage caused by previous strip-mining and also to manage water runoff from the formerly strip-mined areas.

In addition to protecting land that had been restored following prior mining activity, the conservation easement placed on this property protects the land from the threat of residential development from the nearby, growing town of Harrisburg and, more generally, from urban sprawl emanating from the city of Columbia to the southeast. It also ensures the permanent protection of a scenic amenity to the residents of Harrisburg and surrounding rural areas.